U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the federal government’s debt limit during a visit to SUNY Westchester Community College Valhalla in Valhalla, New York, May 10, 2023.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
WASHINGTON — As President Joe Biden hosts congressional leaders at the White House for a highly anticipated meeting on the debt limit Tuesday, stricter work requirements for social safety net programs are emerging as a potential area of compromise.
The White House also said Tuesday that it would cancel the second leg of the president’s upcoming international trip, given the delicate state of the debt ceiling negotiations.
Biden is currently scheduled to depart Wednesday for Japan, where he will attend the Group of Seven summit. He will now return to the U.S. on Sunday immediately after the meeting ends, and will not make planned visits to Papua New Guinea and Australia, a source familiar with Biden’s trip planning told NBC News.
His return will set up a critical stretch in the efforts to avoid a first-ever default on U.S. debt and prevent major economic damage.
The work restrictions for social programs are a key demand of House Republicans, who included them in a partisan debt limit bill that passed that chamber last month.
“The public wants it,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Tuesday, citing a recent ballot initiative in Wisconsin. “Both parties want it, the idea that [Democrats] want to put us into a default because they will not work with us on that is ludicrous to me.”
But the issue is also a red line for some progressive Democrats, a fact that could scramble the vote math of any debt limit deal that could pass the House.
Increasing the current work requirements for federal assistance programs are “a nonstarter for me,” said Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, on MSNBC.
“It’s just cruel, especially as we see the slowing down of the economy,” Khanna said. “I’m hopeful the president will stick to…
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