The speaker of the U.S. House, Kevin McCarthy, indicated that a meeting on the national debt impasse with President Joe Biden was postponed with the agreement of all sides. He stressed that the delay should not be interpreted as a breakdown of talks. Negotiators signaled that they would reconvene soon, and participants agreed that stepping back for more technical discussions was a prudent move to keep negotiations on track.
McCarthy explained that the most efficient path forward is for the involved offices to resume technical discussions on Friday. He noted that, up to this point, the parties had not moved far enough to present a public plan or to finalize an agreement in the broader debt-limit negotiations. He also indicated that the next face-to-face session with the president could occur the following week, with the aim of advancing the talks toward a resolution.
Earlier reports indicated that a Friday session would bring together President Biden and congressional leaders to discuss plans for raising the debt ceiling. Those discussions were temporarily deferred and are expected to resume in the near future as part of ongoing negotiations aimed at avoiding a default and stabilizing the nation’s fiscal outlook.