by President Joe Biden And House Speaker Kevin McCarthywill meet on Wednesday in a highly anticipated face-to-face debate on the debt ceiling And spending cuts demanded by Republicans as the deadline looms over Washington.
Additionally, the Republican presidential race is receiving new competition. Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassador and governor of South Carolina, will announce that she is running for president on February 15. A source familiar with the situation confirms her reports of her plans that were first published in The Post Courier & Journal.
Here’s what else is happening in politics on Wednesday:
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Kamala Harris at Tire Nichols funeral. The vice president will serve with four other White House officials.
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Democrat faces House vote on seat on Foreign Affairs Committee. The GOP in the House is laying the groundwork for a vote on Rep Ilhan Omar, as one of his own has walked away from panel seats for now.
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Republican-led House Judiciary Committee will hold the first of several hearings to examine Biden’s border policies. The hearing is set for 10 am
Biden schedule today
President Joe Biden will meet at 1:15 p.m. with his so-called Competition Council, which aims at corporate consolidation and coordination of antitrust actions. As part of that meeting, he will discuss his administration’s new push to cap most credit card late fees to $8 for a missed payment.
Federal regulators will today propose a rule to cap credit card late fees, and Biden will also urge Congress to crack down on “excessive” junk fees, or the extra fees that ticket brokers, airlines and resorts add to credit card bills. customers, the White House said in a call previewing the announcement.
Biden’s meeting with McCarthy is scheduled for 3:15 p.m., and at 5 p.m., he hosts a send-off for his outgoing chief of staff Ron Klain and welcomes his new one, Jeff Zients.
Biden and McCarthy to meet amid high-risk debt ceiling standoff
In his meeting with McCarthy, Biden should ask if he can pledge that the United States will never default, which would happen if the debt ceiling were not raised. He will also press the speaker for a response on when Republicans will release a budget proposal, according to the White House.
Republicans want to use the debt ceiling action to eliminate “wasteful spending in Washington,” but haven’t specified which programs they want to cut. The White House, which argues that the debt limit should be raised unconditionally, has invited McCarthy and the Republicans to detail their plan.
The Treasury Department took “extraordinary steps” in January to ensure the government’s borrowing capacity until at least early June after the US hit its $31.8 trillion debt limit. Economists fear that failure to raise the debt limit could spell economic catastrophe and plunge the United States into a deep recession.
– Joey Garrison
Vice President Kamala Harris will attend Tire Nichols’ funeral
Vice President Kamala Harris will attend Tire Nichols’ funeral Wednesday, the White House announced.
In early January, Nichols was brutally beaten by five Memphis police officers who were charged with murder.
In addition to Harris, four other White House officials are present. They are: Keisha Lance Bottoms, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; Tara Murray, deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; senior counsel Mitch Landrieu; and Erica Loewe, director of African-American media at the White House.
– Maurizio Groppe
The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee has decided to look into Biden’s border policy
The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday and put Biden’s border policies under the microscope, as well as the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
The hearing, titled “Biden’s Border Crisis – Part One,” is the beginning of planned border hearings and investigations, as House Republicans prepare to transport Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas up to Capitol Hill.
Biden has long faced criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for his handling of immigration and border security.
– Rebecca Morin
House GOP prepares vote to remove Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee
House Republicans are preparing to vote Wednesday on whether to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a policy move planned months before the GOP narrowly won a majority.
The House Rules Committee on Tuesday night passed a resolution to remove it, using an emergency expedited procedure.
The latest preparations regarding Omar come hours after Republican Congressman George Santos resigned from his committee seats, saying he didn’t want to be a distraction from a potential Omar vote. Republicans have come under fire for seating Santos, who admitted to lying to voters about his personal and professional record, on panels as he sought to oust Omar from committees over comments he made in 2019 that were considered anti-Semitic.
— Candy Woodall
Swalwell on committee assignments: McCarthy spokesman engaged in ‘weaponizing’ ‘political abuse’
House Transportation & Infrastructure will look into the effects of supply chain issues
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on the state of the country’s rail, road and port systems in the wake of supply chain woes that helped drive inflation to 40-year highs.
The committee is expected to hear a number of witnesses, including Ian Jefferies, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Railroads.
– Sarah Elbesbishi
Moreover: Grandmothers and grandchildren separated at border, despite US move to reunite migrant families
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee will hold a hearing on COVID-19 spending
The Oversight and Accountability Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday morning titled “Federal Pandemic Spending: A Recipe for Waste, Fraud, and Abuse.”
The House hearing will focus on the fraud and abuse of COVID-19 relief programs and examine policies to ensure federal funds reach their intended recipients.
Among the witnesses are: Michael Horowitz, chairman of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee; Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General in the US Office of Government Accountability and David Smith, Deputy Director of the US Secret Service Bureau of Investigation.
Rachel Bellocchio
Amid the debt ceiling standoff: Why Joe Biden refuses to negotiate with Republicans
Related: The Tire Nichols case reignites conversations among lawmakers about federal police legislation
This article originally appeared in USA TODAY: Live updates: Biden and McCarthy to meet Wednesday on debt ceiling
