White House budget director Sylvia Burwell predicts Congress will agree in the next few weeks to raise the debt ceiling before the government loses its borrowing power.
Burwell said the $1.1 trillion budget deal Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) struck with Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in December signaled both parties are willing to work together.
“How is it going to happen? I think it is going to happen,” Burwell told Reuters in an interview. “We’ve gotten there twice before, and I think we will get there.”
{mosads}Republicans are expected to debate the issue of the debt limit at their three-day annual retreat in Maryland on Friday.
Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said on CNN Thursday that the debt-limit fight is an opportunity to discuss longer-term solutions.
“We will not default on our bonds as a country,” Ryan said. “We know that’s not a good idea, but we don’t want to let the moment pass by without having a conversation about how can we make some improvements so we don’t keep having these big debt-ceiling problems day after day or year after year.”
Congress suspended the nation’s $16.7 trillion borrowing limit until Feb. 7 in a deal to end the government shutdown in October.
Last week, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew urged lawmakers in a letter to raise the ceiling by late February. He had originally predicted the nation would default as late as early March.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) admitted this week that House Republicans probably won’t receive any concessions from the White House as a result of a debt-limit deal.