UPDATE 12-Biden, McCarthy reach tentative US debt ceiling deal

May 28, 2023

(Adds deal details)By Steve Holland, Gram Slattery and Katharine JacksonWASHINGTON, May 27 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy reached a tentative deal to suspend the federal government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling on Saturday evening, ending a months-long stalemate. Biden and McCarthy held a 90-minute phone call earlier on Saturday evening to discuss the deal, McCarthy briefed his members later in the evening, and the White House and the House leader spoke afterward. "We still have more work to do tonight to finish the writing of it," McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill. The long standoff on raising the debt ceiling spooked financial markets, weighing on stocks and forcing the United States to pay record-high interest rates in some bond sales. The work to raise the debt ceiling is far from done.