Speaker Mike Johnson said on Tuesday that he is "not wed" to including a debt limit increase in the reconciliation package that has numerous agenda priorities of President-elect Donald Trump as the issue emerges as one of the more contentious in the package among Republicans, The Hill reported.
Last month, Republican lawmakers agreed to boost the borrowing limit by $1.5 trillion in exchange for $2.5 trillion in net cuts. But those cutbacks are likely to be extremely difficult to achieve.
Although Johnson said he is attempting to build consensus for those cuts, other top Republicans are indicating that removing the debt limit from the reconciliation package could make it easier for the bill to move through the House, according to the Hill.
Congress will have to address the debt limit soon, because the Treasury expects the U.S. to reach the new debt limit sometime this week or next.
Johnson told reporters last week that it was his aim to deal with the debt limit in the reconciliation package, but when asked again on Tuesday if that was still the intention, he said "that's the current plan," but "we're socializing that among members. I'm not really wed to that, it was the initial idea. So we'll see, we'll see how it develops."
Politico reported that although reaching a deal with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling would enrage the House's conservative hardliners, Trump appears to be softening to the idea, according to House Republicans who were at meetings with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.