House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he does not think the U.S. will default on its debt.
McCarthy appeared on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday, a day after meeting with President Joe Biden and other congressional leaders at the White House.
"I think, at the end of the day, we do not have a debt default," McCarthy told CNBC as a June 1 deadline, when the government is set to run out of money, is approaching.
McCarthy told CNBC he's encouraged by Biden's willingness to negotiate.
"The difference is our meetings before were staffers or the four [congressional] leaders and there was no time we were going to get an agreement continuing that way," said McCarthy, who added that he and Biden representatives needed to hammer out a deal.
"The only thing I'm confident about is now we have a structure to find a way to come to a conclusion," McCarthy said. "The timeline is very right. But we're going to make sure we're in the room and get this done."
McCarthy said raising taxes will not be discussed.
"There is not going to be a tax discussion in this debt ceiling," McCarthy said. "The president admitted that yesterday."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also told CNBC that he's "optimistic" a deal will be reached before the deadline.
"It was a very positive meeting yesterday," Jeffries said of the White House meeting. "It was calm. It was candid in terms of the discussion and I'm optimistic common ground will be found in the next week or two."
Raising the debt ceiling is necessary for the government to avoid default and cover spending commitments already approved by Congress and the president.
House Republicans want future spending cuts before agreeing to lift the limit.
Jeffries said a GOP request to attach work requirements to federal food benefits was a "nonstarter."
He added that the last time (2018) work requirements were proposed, McCarthy and other Republicans voted against it.
"It's entirely unreasonable to think that at this particular point in time, in the context of a debt ceiling showdown that has been manufactured, as part of an effort to avoid default, that these types of so-called work requirements can be imposed on the American people," Jeffries told CNBC.
McCarthy said work requirements are the "responsible" thing to do, adding that Biden supported work requirements when he was a senator.
"Work requirements only go to those able-bodied people with no dependents," McCarthy told "Squawk Box." "You could be in school and be waived. You could be looking for a job and be waived.
"But what we've found is with every statistical data is that it helps people get a job, it helps our supply chain, it helps the economy and the individual even stronger, and that's what we should be doing."
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