into the business activities of the president s son. all of this comes on a dayothers name, robert f. kennedy jr. officially launches a primary challenge. white house correspondent peter doocy joins us live on the north lawn with the latest. good evening, peter. peter: bret, this whistleblower s lawyer says that he is a career official in the irs criminal division and he is alleging that a political appointee at the irs lied to congress about the hunter biden tax investigation at some point in the last few years. and this whistleblower is alleging that politics and preferential treatment are interfering in the hunter biden probe. we are awaiting reply from hunter biden s representatives. the chairman of the house ways and means committee says they are going to meet with this whistleblower soon. and this does come at a politically delicate time for the president. remember, he and his political team retooled the democratic primary calendar to put south carolina first because
digging through the numbers and we ll have the highlights for you on that in just minutes. first, the big news overnight, that the senate passed the bill to suspend the debt ceiling. the president will sign it into law later and address the nation this evening. no doubt, analysts will try to assess winners and losers from the negotiations. one clear winner is the u.s. economy. the fact that the country will not default on its debt as soon as monday. the bill passed the senate overnight, 63-36. it was bipartisan. every way you look at it, it took both republicans and democrats to get it through, but it was opposed by significant numbers of both parties as well. the bill suspends the debt ceiling until after the 2024 presidential election. it caps nondefense spending at about $700 billion, and protects veterans medical care. the package will add work requirements for some adults receiving food stamps though it eases the past to receiving assistance for others. it claws back some covid re
ceiling for two years. after republicans demand it s demanded spending cuts, the deal caps non-defense spending to just a. 1% increase over the next two years. it claws back unspent covid aid, and places new work requirements for some adults on food stamps. some house conservatives are worried mccarthy gave up too much into floated the idea of replacing him as speaker. if i can t kill it, if we can t kill it on the floor tomorrow, then we are going to have to then regroup and figure out the whole leadership arrangement again. mccarthy, of course, needs 218 votes to get this bill passed, and if he fails to get enough republican votes, he s going to need support from democrats. but here s the problem there, some of those are far, far, far from being the lock. i m still undecided. and those words are exactly how i still feel. we are being held hostage.
the key points in it. the bill will raise the debt ceiling for two years. after republicans demand it s spending cuts, the deal caps non-defense spending to just 1% increase over the next two years. it claws back unspent covid aid, and places new work requirements for some adults on food stamps. some house conservatives aware wade mccarthy gave too much and even floated the idea of replacing him as. if i can t kill it, if we can t kill it on the floor tomorrow, then we re gonna have to then regroup and figure out the whole leadership arrangement again. mccarthy of course needs 218 votes to get this bill passed, and if he fails to get enough republican votes, he s going to need support from democrats. but here s the problem there, some of those are far far far from being the lock. i m still undecided. and those words are exactly how i still feel. we are being held hostage.
not one republican should vote for this deal. it is a bad deal. it is bad in a lot of respects. reporter: the bill will raise the debt ceiling for two years. and after republicans demanded spending cuts, the deal caps nondefense spending to just a 1% increase over the next two years. it claws back unspent covid aid and places new work requirements for some adults on food stamps. still, some house conservatives are worried mccarthy gave up too much, and some are entertaining what s called a motion to vacate, a vote to remove mccarthy as speaker. how do you view the motion to vacate in this situation? as a tool to fix republican leadership to align with the republican conference. reporter: but mccarthy believes the bill s future is solid and his speakership is not in danger. i m is not sure what in the bill people are concerned about. it is the largest savings of 2.1 trillion we ve ever had. are they opposed to work requirements for welfare?