Details of US debt ceiling deal being ironed out to avert catastrophic default

Biden calls tentative agreement ‘an important step forward’ but deal still needs to receive approval from the divided Congress

Legislation was being urgently worked on in Washington on Sunday to spell out the details of the tentative deal to raise the US debt ceiling struck between Joe Biden and House speaker Kevin McCarthy hours earlier, with the aim of putting it before Congress and avoiding a catastrophic and unprecedented default in early June.

Biden and McCarthy held a 90-minute phone call earlier on Saturday evening to discuss the deal, with the Democratic US president joining the call from the Camp David retreat and the Republican speaker in the nation’s capital.