A look at the week ahead: Congress juggles two crises as campaign heats up
Ryan King
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Congress will be grappling with the debt limit and border security crises this week, with critical deadlines fast approaching on both fronts.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden are set for a big day Wednesday, with Trump making his return to CNN for a town hall event and Biden hitting the road to New York for campaign fundraisers.
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Here is a look at the top events on the docket for this week.
Tuesday
Biden-McCarthy meeting
After months of posturing, Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are set to meet Tuesday to discuss the debt limit impasse. The meeting was announced last week after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen bumped up the timeline for the U.S. government’s projected cash shortage to June 1.
McCarthy has long demanded a meeting with Biden, who, in turn, has been adamant that raising the nation’s borrowing authority without strings attached is not up for negotiation. The pair last met to discuss the matter in February. All four congressional leaders have accepted the invite, but the crux of the deadlock is between Biden and McCarthy.
The speaker is coming with some momentum after having passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act in the lower chamber, something many analysts did not believe he could pull off. Democrats have been unable to wrangle through an alternative stand-alone debt limit plan through the narrowly controlled Senate.
Wednesday
Biden and Harris hit the fundraising circuit
Now that he’s running, Biden will head to New York on a fundraising trip, traveling near the turf of vulnerable Empire State Republicans. His itinerary includes a fundraiser hosted by former Blackstone executive Tony James and another by George Logothetis, the executive chairman of Libra Group, CNBC reported.
The trip is reportedly one of his first fundraisers since launching his reelection bid last month. Vice President Kamala Harris will head to Georgia on Friday for additional fundraising, according to Reuters.
Trump town hall
Trump is set to attend a town hall event hosted by CNN in New Hampshire on Wednesday, marking a reunion with a network he’s had a famously acrimonious relationship with. Anchor Kaitlan Collins, who sparred with Trump during his White House days, will moderate the event.
During the event, Trump will field questions from undecided voters in the area. CNN has taken flack from some journalists for platforming him, but he remains the front-runner in the 2024 GOP field.
Part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) interview with journalist John Stossel will drop Wednesday as well.
Biden family business dealings
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) teased over the weekend that his panel has amassed a trove of evidence about the Biden family’s overseas activities and will unfurl those findings Wednesday.
Comer has long been a critic of Biden and has insinuated that his family has been engaged in influence peddling overseas. The move comes as prosecutors are reportedly nearing a decision on charges against first son Hunter Biden for possible tax and firearms violations.
Thursday
Title 42 expires
Looming over the week is the end of Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that allows for the rapid expulsion of illegal immigrants at the border without an asylum hearing. The policy is set to be lifted Thursday, and border communities are bracing for a possible onslaught of border crossings in response.
Biden has weathered intense criticism from Republicans and even many Democrats over his administration’s preparations for its expiration.
Border security bill
Coinciding with Title 42’s expiration, House Republicans are planning to vote on a border security bill on Thursday that the White House has already threatened to veto.
The measure features a slew of Trump-era immigration initiatives such as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, a restart in the border wall construction, bolstered security provisions, upgraded technology, and more.
Blinken deadline
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) gave Secretary of State Antony Blinken until Thursday to comply with his long-standing demand for the Afghanistan dissent cable, in which nearly two dozen U.S. Embassy members in Kabul criticized U.S. preparations for withdrawal in July 2021.
Should Blinken fail to comply with his demand, the “Committee is prepared to take the necessary steps to enforce its subpoena, including holding you in contempt of Congress and/or initiating a civil enforcement proceeding,” according to a letter from McCaul.
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Both chambers of Congress are set to return to session Tuesday ahead of the “big four” meeting with Biden. Another major development that could come this week is former columnist E. Jean Carroll’s rape trial against Trump, which began closing arguments Monday.
Trump declined to testify in that case.