© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The U.S. flag flies over the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. December 19, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
By Moira Warburton, Richard Cowan and Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A second meeting on Friday between White House and Republican congressional negotiators on raising the federal government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling broke up with no progress cited by either side and no additional meeting set.
“We had a very, very candid discussion talking about where we are, talking about where things need to be,” Republican Representative Garret Graves told reporters following a brief meeting in the Capitol with White House officials.
“This wasn’t a negotiation tonight,” Graves said, adding the timing of the next meeting was not set.
He echoed earlier remarks by House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy that progress needed to be made on changing the “trajectory” of U.S. government deficit spending.
A second Republican negotiator, Representative Patrick McHenry, said McCarthy would be briefed on the status of the talks. Neither lawmaker cited any progress.
McHenry, asked whether the two sides could meet McCarthy’s goal of reaching a deal by this weekend to present to Congress for passage in coming days, said he was not confident of that outcome.
Senior White House adviser Steve Ricchetti left the meeting room telling reporters that he was “not assessing” the talks.
Congress and the White House are racing against a June 1 time frame that the Treasury Department says could mark the moment it will be unable to meet some of its debt payments if the debt ceiling is not raised, which likely would trigger a first-ever U.S. default.
This story originally appeared on Investing
