The US House of Representatives is due to vote today on a bill to lift the government's debt ceiling, a critical step to avoid a potential economically destabilising default that could come early next week without congressional action.
Republicans control the House by a narrow 222-213 majority.
But the bipartisan deal will need support from both Speaker Kevin McCarthy's Republicans and President Joe Biden's Democrats to pass, as members of both parties object to significant parts of the bill.
The House Rules Committee last night, in the first procedural vote on the contentious legislation, cleared the measure for debate in the full House today. A vote on passage by the full House is expected later in the day.
The committee voted 7-6 to advance this bipartisan deal, with two far-right Republicans in opposition, along with all four Democrats.
The solid Democratic opposition is not necessarily indicative of how the 213-member party caucus would vote on the bill itself.
The legislation would suspend the US debt limit up to January 1, 2025, allowing Biden and politicians to set aside the politically risky issue until after the November 2024 presidential election.
It would also cap some government spending over the next two years, speed up the permitting process for some energy projects, claw back unused Covid-19 funds, and expand work requirements for food aid programmes to additional recipients.
The Treasury Department has warned that it will not be able to cover all the government's obligations by June 5 if Congress does not raise the limit.
During yesterday's debate in the House Rules Committee, Republican Representative Chip Roy complained that far greater budget savings were not achieved, as many conservatives had hoped.
He added that the bill also failed to turn back landmark Biden administration accomplishments, including vigorous spending to fight the effects of climate change.
But reflecting party divisions, Representative Erin Houchin countered that despite Democratic control of the White House and Senate, the bill would achieve significant Republican spending cuts.
"We are certainly punching above our weight," she told her fellow House Republicans.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said last ight the legislation would result in $1.5 trillion in savings over a decade.
A successful House vote would send the bill to the Senate, where debate and voting could stretch into the weekend, especially if any one of the 100 senators try to slow its passage.
In a win for Republicans, the bill would shift some funding away from the Internal Revenue Service, although the White House says that should not undercut tax enforcement.
Biden can point to gains as well.
The deal leaves Biden's signature infrastructure and green-energy laws largely intact, and the spending cuts and work requirements are far less than Republicans had sought.
Republicans have argued that steep spending cuts are necessary to curb the growth of the national debt, which at $31.4 trillion is roughly equal to the annual output of the economy.
Interest payments on that debt are projected to eat up a growing share of the budget as an aging population pushes up health and retirement costs, according to government forecasts. The deal would not do anything to rein in those fast-growing programmes.
Most of the savings would come by capping spending on domestic programmes like housing, education, scientific research and other forms of "discretionary" spending.
Military spending would be allowed to increase over the next two years.
The debt-ceiling standoff prompted ratings agencies to warn that they might downgrade US debt, which underpins the global financial system.
The last time the US came this close to default was in 2011, a time of similar partisan divide in Washington, with a Democratic president and Senate majority and a Republican-majority House.
