President Joe Biden is meeting this week with the top four leaders in the House and Senate to determine the path forward on raising the nation’s debt limit. The meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) will be the first meeting between Biden and McCarthy in months and comes at a time when both sides remain firmly entrenched in their public positions.

The White House and congressional Democrats are insisting on a clean debt limit increase, with no conditions. House and Senate Republicans are demanding that spending cuts be part of any deal to raise the debt limit. More than 40 Republicans in the Senate have stated that they will not agree to a debt-limit increase without some measures on spending levels. As a result, the White House currently does not have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate to pass a clean debt-limit increase. The Treasury Department has estimated that the U.S. will not be able to meet all its financial obligations as soon as June 1 unless the nation’s borrowing limit is increased.