US President Joe
Biden has said he is optimistic that a bipartisan deal to temporarily suspend
the nation's debt ceiling will pass through Congress.
The deal must
pass in the narrowly divided House of Representatives before it is voted on in
the Senate.
Democratic and
Republican leaders say they expect it will be approved, but some lawmakers have
said they will vote against it.
The US may
default on its debt by 5 June without action being taken.
On Monday, Mr
Biden said he felt "very good" about the prospect of lawmakers
passing the deal by the deadline.
"We'll see
when the vote starts," he told reporters as he left the White House, adding
he had "made some calls already" to lawmakers.
Negotiators
worked to sell the package on Monday, the Memorial Day federal holiday, with
both parties holding separate calls and meetings on the bill, US media report.
The House and
Senate are expected to return to the Capitol on Tuesday. A vote on the bill in
the House of Representatives is scheduled for Wednesday, lawmakers said.
The proposed
deal comes after long and bitter negotiations between Democrats and
Republicans.
It includes
suspending the debt ceiling until the first quarter of 2025, rather than
raising it by a specific amount, as well as a cap on non-defence spending until
2024.
A text of the
bill, titled the Fiscal Responsibility Act, was
made public on Sunday.
That same day,
Mr Biden told reporters that he did not believe his party had made too many
concessions in the agreement.
"This is a
deal that is good news," Mr Biden said. "It takes the threat of
catastrophic default off the table, protects our hard-earned and historic
economic recovery."
Hakeem Jeffries,
the Democratic House minority leader, told CBS he believed his party would
support it.
"I do
expect that there will be Democratic support once we have the ability to
actually be fully briefed by the White House," Mr Jeffries said on Sunday.
"But I'm not going to predict what those numbers may ultimately look
like."
But Ro Khanna, a
Californian Democrat and member of the House Progressive Caucus, told NBC News
on Sunday night that a "large majority" of House Democrats were
"in flux" on whether they would lend their support.
Mr Biden said on
Monday he did not know if progressive Democratic lawmakers would back the deal.
Meanwhile, House
Speaker Kevin McCarthy said on Sunday that he expected more than 95% of House
Republicans would support the bill.
In an opinion
piece published in the Wall Street Journal late on Sunday, the top
Republican hailed the agreement as a hard-fought win for Republicans.
"We are
changing the direction in Washington through a responsible debt-limit increase
that cuts spending, saves taxpayers money and restores economic growth,"
he wrote.
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During
negotiations, Republicans had been seeking spending cuts in areas such as
education and other social programmes in exchange for raising the $31.4tn
(£25tn) debt limit.
As the 99-page
proposed agreement was made public, some of the most conservative Republicans
voiced concerns that the deal did not cut future spending enough. Republican
Chip Roy of Texas said on Twitter that he and some others were going to try to
stop it passing.
Some Democrats
said they worried about changes in the agreement to the food stamps programme.
Aside from
addressing the debt ceiling limit, the bill also proposed raising the age from
50 to 54 for those who are required to work in order to receive food benefits.
At the same
time, it proposed eliminating work requirements for veterans and people who are
homeless.
Republicans
control the House by 222 to 213, while Democrats control the Senate by 51 to
49.
The Treasury had
warned the US would run out of money if a deal was not passed.
The US must
borrow money to fund the government because it spends more than it raises in
taxes.
With the US
dollar being the reserve currency of the world, a default would both upend the
US economy and disrupt global markets.
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