Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to make a proposal to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer this afternoon to raise the debt limit, according to GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
Murkowski told reporters that after the vote this afternoon to advance a House bill suspending the debt limit, which Republicans are expected to block, McConnell will outline a proposal that he’s prepared to discuss with Schumer on addressing the debt limit.
Asked what she expects after today’s vote, Murkowski said, “I think you’re gonna hear from Leader McConnell. He’s gonna outline the proposal that he is prepared, I think, to discuss with Sen. Schumer… and I think that’ll give us a way out of the woods, which is what we want.”
She declined to provide further details on what’s in McConnell’s proposal.
The expectation is it would be a short-term suspension of the debt limit. A separate GOP source said it is expected to go until December.
GOP senators are meeting right now.
Why this matters: Senate Democrats and Republicans have been in a standoff over raising the debt ceiling. Even though Congress has in the past raised the debt ceiling with a bipartisan vote, McConnell has repeatedly vowed that Republicans will not vote to raise it.
Democrats are able to raise the debt ceiling on their own without Republican votes, but they would need to use the lengthy reconciliation process to do so. Democratic leaders in the House and Senate have said they are not willing to use that process and instead have been looking for Republicans to cooperate with paying the nation’s bills.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last month that the nation will run out of money to pay its bills on Oct. 18, leaving the US facing default for the first time in its history, which would be economically devastating.
CNN’s Arlette Saenz, Betsy Klein and Kate Sullivan contributed reporting to this post.