The White House is looking at trading away part of a historic boost in Internal Revenue Service funding it won last year as part of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act in order to seal a deal to raise the debt limit and avoid an unprecedented government default.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the White House was offering to redirect $10 billion of the $80 billion boost in IRS funding to ease Republican-proposed cuts in the annual spending that goes to non-defense federal agencies and programs.
The emerging deal had yet to be finalized, and negotiators continued to haggle over details, the Times said.
With the Treasury Department saying the government could be unable to pay all of its bills in early June, possibly as soon as June 1, without a debt limit hike, it’s crunch time for House Republican and White House negotiators. They still face the logistical hurdles of writing a bill and getting through various parliamentary obstacles to beat June 1 even if they…