By Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden has requested a gaggle of aides to discover “all authorized and coverage choices” to stop one other debt ceiling deal, the White Home mentioned on Thursday.
Final month, the Democratic president and Republican Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy signed a bipartisan deal after briefly averting a disaster that would have plunged the US into an unprecedented recession and financial disaster.
A brand new panel led by White Home adviser Stuart DeLeary and Nationwide Financial Council member Lael Brainard will study steps Congress can take to make default danger “a factor of the previous,” amongst different adjustments.
It was not instantly clear whether or not the panel, which didn’t embrace any outstanding Republican officers, would help eliminating the debt ceiling totally, or whether or not Biden would have the ability to ignore authorized restrictions on the 14th Modification to the U.S. Structure.
The duty pressure “dangers dropping the flexibility to take steps that Congress can take to make the previous a factor of the previous, in addition to constitutional and different measures by Congress to keep away from future crises,” the White Home mentioned in a press release.
The group consists of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland, White Home Price range Director Shalanda Younger and Council of Financial Advisers Chairman Jared Bernstein.
That group will seek the advice of with 4 authorized students in its first assembly, together with Harvard Regulation College professor emeritus Lawrence Tribe and Morgan Stanley chief international economist Seth Carpenter, the White Home mentioned.
This yr’s bipartisan debt ceiling deal would hold fiscal 2024 spending at this yr’s ranges, permitting for a 1% improve for fiscal yr 2025. The nonpartisan Congressional Price range Workplace estimates the deal would cut back the deficit by about $1.5 trillion from the present baseline projections.
The deal was permitted by 149 Home Republicans — a robust celebration majority — to 165 Democrats. Forty-six Democrats, largely progressives, opposed the deal, saying it could impose stricter work necessities on poor households receiving meals help or money help and different limitations to employment.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunniquet; Modifying by Leslie Adler and Stephen Coates)