Biden meets with congressional leaders on debt ceiling, will cut Asia trip short

President Biden held a second meeting this afternoon with leaders of Congress about raising the debt ceiling. Time is running short now and the two sides are still far apart, but there is hope tonight that a deal could be reached soon. Nicole DeAntonio reports from the White House. We're having a wonderful time. President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with congressional leaders at the White House to try to hash out differences on raising the debt limit. I made clear again today's meeting that default is not an option. America pays its debts, pays its bills.

The leaders are honing in on possible areas of agreements, including permitting changes for domestic energy projects and claiming back some unspent federal COVID relief money. If we're a long way apart, but what changed in this meeting was the president has now selected two people from his administration to directly negotiate with us. Earlier Tuesday, a group of demonstrators protested the risk of a debt default outside of congressional offices. In a letter, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers the U.S. could run out of cash as early as June 1. Both sides say they want an agreement before the deadline.

This is giving your child a credit card, but they keep reaching the limit and you have every year after year just raised the limit to a point that now you can't afford it. Some Democrats are already expressing worry that the president will make concessions, namely expanded work requirements for certain government aid programs. Having a bipartisan bill in both chambers is the only way, the only way we're going to avoid default. With a clock ticking on the showdown, President Biden is shortening his planned international trip to come home and continue negotiations. Nicole DeAntonio, CBS News, The White House. And we are being told tonight those negotiations are expected to resume tomorrow.

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