President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached an agreement in principle Saturday to lift the debt limit for two years while cutting and capping some government spending over the same period. a breakthrough after a marathon of crisis talks that has brought the nation within days of its first-ever default.

Congressional approval of the plan before June 5, when the Treasury is projected to exhaust its ability to pay its obligations, is not assured, particularly in the House, which plans to consider it on Wednesday. Republicans hold a slim majority in the House, and right-wing lawmakers who had demanded significantly bigger budget cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit were already in rebellion.

But the compromise, which would effectively freeze federal spending that had been on track to grow, had the blessing of both the Democratic and Republican presidents, raising hopes it could break the fiscal gridlock that has gripped Washington and the nation. for weeks. threatening an economic crisis.

Mr. Biden urged the House and Senate to pass the deal in a statement released late at night by the White House, saying it would prevent a catastrophic default.

“It’s an important step forward that reduces spending while protecting critical programs for workers and growing the economy for everyone,” Biden said. “And the deal protects my key priorities and legislative gains from Democrats in Congress. The agreement represents a compromise, which means that not everyone gets what they want.”

The president and McCarthy spoke by phone Saturday night to resolve final sticking points.

In a one-minute late-night press conference outside his Capitol Hill office, McCarthy said the deal contained “historic reductions in spending, consequential reforms that will lift people out of poverty and into the workforce, control government overreach” and would add no new taxes. He declined to answer questions or give details, but said he planned to publish the legislative text on Sunday.

“We still have more work to do tonight to finish writing it,” he said.

The plan was structured with the goal of attracting votes from both parties, though it has drawn the ire not only of conservative Republicans but also of Democrats furious that they were asked to vote for the cuts they oppose with the threat of default. imminent.

Still, it gives Republicans the ability to say they managed to cut some federal spending, even as funding for the military and veterans programs continue to grow, while allowing Democrats to say they saved most national programs. of significant cuts.

The deal would suspend the debt limit, which currently stands at $31.4 trillion, for two years, enough to get past the next presidential election.

According to a person familiar with the agreement, it would also impose new work requirements for some recipients of government aid, including food stamps and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. It would put new limits on how long certain food stamp recipients (people under age 54, who do not have children) could benefit from the program. But it would also expand access to food stamps for veterans and the homeless, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss details of the package.

The tentative settlement also recovers some unspent money from a previous pandemic relief bill and reduces by $10 billion, to $70 billion from $80 billion, new enforcement funds for the IRS to take action. crackdown on tax cheats. It includes measures intended to speed up environmental reviews of certain energy projects and a provision intended to force the president to find budget savings to offset the costs of a unilateral action, such as forgiving student loans, although administration officials could circumvent that requirement. It also includes an enforcement measure intended to prevent a government shutdown later this year.

Labor requirements and environmental review reforms were some of the latest details the two sides worked out on Saturday.

White House and congressional negotiators, working around the clock on Capitol Hill, in the White House and virtually, pushed the resolution to almost the last minute, mounting pressure on lawmakers to agree to a solution unpopular with activists. both right and left. Economists and Wall Street analysts warned that a default would be devastating and potentially lead to a global economic collapse.

To avoid a default, the House and Senate must approve the agreement and send it to Mr. Biden for his signature. That promises to be a slog for both McCarthy and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, who must now cobble together a coalition of House Republicans and Democrats to pull it off.

Mr. McCarthy has repeatedly said that he believes a majority of his conference would vote for the deal, but it remains unclear how many Republicans will back the compromise, and how many Democrats will be needed to vote for it to make up for defections from the GOP. .

The road is also likely to be difficult in the Senate, where swift action requires bipartisan support and conservatives have signaled they are unwilling to go any further.

In a sign of their discontent, members of the House Freedom Caucus came together to identify procedural tools to delay passage of the deal or make the bill more conservative.

Republicans have for months refused to raise the debt limit unless Biden agreed to cut spending and reduce future debt, risking a default to exert his influence. The final deal achieves its goal, but only modestly. A New York Times analysis of the spending caps at the center of the deal suggests they will cut federal spending by about $650 billion over a decade, if spending grows at the expected rate of inflation after the caps are lifted in two years.

The cuts in the package are almost certainly too modest to win the votes of hardline conservatives and too strict to win the votes of progressives in the House. Lawmakers in the House Freedom Caucus were privately ridiculing the deal Saturday night, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus had already begun to fuss even before negotiators finalized the deal.

But budget hawks urged it to pass. “The process was tense, risky and ugly, but in the end we have a plan to enact savings and lift the debt ceiling, and that’s what it takes,” said Maya MacGuineas, chairwoman of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in Washington.

The agreement would impose limits on discretionary spending for two years, although those limits would apply differently to military spending than to the rest of the federal budget. Spending on the military would grow next year, as would spending on the care of some veterans. Spending on other national programs would fall slightly, or remain more or less stable, compared to this year’s levels.

The announcement came after months of brinkmanship. Biden and congressional Democrats initially insisted that House Republicans raise the debt ceiling without conditions, but relented after McCarthy led his conference to pass a bill to increase the nation’s debt limit to change from cutting government programs by an average of 18 percent over a decade. Republicans purposefully avoided exposing exactly which programs they planned to cut, but the bill’s passage forced Biden to do what he had said he would never do: negotiate the debt limit hike.

The agreement was finally reached by a group led by Biden adviser Steve Ricchetti; his budget director, Shalanda Young; and two of Mr. McCarthy’s closest confidants, Representatives Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina and Garrett Graves of Louisiana. They agreed to use some creative accounting maneuvers in the deal to help provide political cover for both sides.

But McCarthy is likely to face a revolt from far-right lawmakers at his conference, whom he authorized as part of the concessions he made to become House speaker in January after a tough 15-round election.

In a private call to brief members of his conference on the emerging deal, McCarthy sold the deal as a victory, saying there was little in the package for Democrats to support. But far-right lawmakers in the Freedom Caucus, who for days had been voicing frustration with the emerging contours of the deal, made their discontent known.

Everything “what they fought for” in the House bill was omitted from the agreement, Rep. Bob Good of Virginia said, according to a person familiar with the comments who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private call. Mr. McCarthy and his associates defended the deal, citing several victories, including reduced money for the IRS.

Progressives also expressed their discontent even before the deal was announced.

Lindsay Owens, executive director of the liberal Groundwork Collaborative in Washington, criticized the agreement for forcing budget cuts in domestic programs and, in particular, for reducing enforcement money for the IRS.

“Giving into Republican demands to hamper the IRS’s ability to go after wealthy tax evaders is a losing proposition for Democrats,” he said. “It undermines an important political initiative, drains a good source of revenue, and requires the caucus to reject a policy that is incredibly popular with the public.”

pedro baker contributed reporting.