“President Biden and House Democrats are standing against this cruel and senseless tradeoff,” Bates added.
Work requirements have been a major sticking point in the ongoing talks. Republicans are seeking to add them to programs that help low-income families — specifically SNAP and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs, both of which already contain some form of work requirements. But they appear to have backed down from earlier efforts to add new layers of work requirements to Medicaid.
Earlier Friday, Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s emissary in the negotiations, said Republicans need work requirements in a deal. “Hell no,” he said when asked by a reporter whether the GOP would back down on the issue.
Congressional lawmakers and the White House were expected to continue debt negotiations through the weekend. But both sides got a bit of a reprieve Friday night when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent Congress a new estimate that showed the default deadline to be June 5, four days later than the previous estimate.