WASHINGTON A meeting of top White House officials and congressional leaders broke up Wednesday without agreement on topline funding allocations for appropriators, raising fresh doubts over their ability to avert another fiscal crisis later this year.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., accused Democrats of upping the ante on nondefense spending from what theyd put on the table previously. The problem is the Democrats keep raising their number higher, he said. Theres no negotiation.
It wasnt immediately clear whether there was movement on raising the statutory debt ceiling, which needs to be lifted by late September or the governments borrowing authority will grind to a halt. Trump administration officials said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., agreed that the debt limit should be dealt with irrespective of the budget caps negotiations.
