Sources say the House GOP increase of the borrowing limit will not be 'clean.' House GOP mulls own short-term bill

With just four days to go until the U.S. government reaches its borrowing limit, House Republican leaders are considering whether to move their own short-term debt limit bill in the early part of this week, according to GOP sources.

The action right now is in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are trying to work out a deal. But the two men — following a “cordial but inconclusive” phone call Sunday — are still not near an agreement to end the two-week-old government shutdown or boost the $16.7 trillion debt limit.


House Republican leadership aides say if some compromise isn’t unveiled by Reid and McConnell on Monday, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other top GOP lawmakers could move to pass their own six-week extension of borrowing authority on Tuesday. The GOP sources cautioned that no decision has been made to take such an action yet, although House leaders are preparing for that scenario.

“There will be a time fairly soon, I think, where the only option to get something done before the deadline is originating legislation in the House,” a senior Republican aide told POLITICO.

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The House GOP increase of the borrowing limit will not be “clean.” Some policy provisions favored by conservative Republicans would be attached, these sources say.

Yet, Boehner and his top lieutenants are cognizant that this legislation must be something Reid, McConnell and President Barack Obama could accept. That means Republicans won’t try to wholly defund Obamacare — the president’s signature legislative accomplishment — as part of this bill. On Friday, Obama rejected the House Republican proposal, shifting the focus on the budget talks to the Senate.

Attaching the so-called Vitter amendment to the debt-limit increase is one option, according to House GOP sources. That provision would end health-insurance subsidies for members of Congress, their aides and other federal government employees. Another option is delaying or repealing the medical device tax. Reid and Senate Democrats have opposed both proposals so far, but with the debt limit clock ticking, House Republicans may have more leverage now.

As the Thursday deadline approaches, there are numerous variables in play as Congress struggles with finding a way out of the current fiscal crisis. If the financial markets plummet Monday, that could force quick action in both chambers. U.S. stock futures opened down sharply on Sunday evening. And if House members feel pressure from their constituents after two days home in their districts, that could expedite a solution as well.

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Of course, this could all change, and the Senate is still likely to take the lead in lifting the debt ceiling. Reid and McConnell negotiated Saturday and Sunday on a package to reopen the government, which has been closed for 13 days, and lift the debt limit. Late Sunday, Reid sounded optimistic a package was in the offing.

“I have had a productive conversation with the Republican leader this afternoon,” Reid said late Sunday from the Senate floor. “Our discussions were substantive and we’ll continue those discussions. I’m optimistic about the prospects for a positive conclusion to the issues before this country today.”

Reid and Senate Democrats have pushed for relaxation of the spending caps under sequestration, which were mandated as part of the 2011 Budget Control Act. Reid and the White House also want to see a debt ceiling increase far longer than what Boehner has proposed.

But McConnell — up for reelection in 2014 — has refused to budge on the spending caps. The Kentucky Republican, however, has also supported repeal of the medical device tax and means testing for Obamacare subsidies.

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There’s also no guarantee House Republicans will like what Reid and McConnell produce, leaving Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) with an extraordinarily tough decision: Do they put something on the House floor with minimal GOP support, or do they reject a Senate compromise opposed by GOP conservatives?

Obama spoke to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday. Pelosi has repeatedly offered to Boehner, in numerous phone calls and a private meeting, deliver the vast majority of her 200 House Democrats for a clean debt limit or government funding bill. Yet, Boehner, concerned about a backlash from the conservative and tea-party affiliated wing of the House GOP Conference, has refused to countenance such a move so far.

“The President and Leader Pelosi discussed the way forward on the pressing fiscal matters facing Congress today,” the White House said in a statement released Sunday. ”They reinforced that there must be a clean debt limit increase that allows us to pay the bills we have incurred and avoid default, and that the House needs to pass the clean continuing resolution to open up the government and end the shutdown that is hurting middle-class families and businesses across the country.”