House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) says that Congress will meet the debt ceiling deadline. 

According to The Hill, McCarthy said as much on Saturday morning when he arrived at the Capitol to continue debt ceiling negotiations.

When asked by a reporter whether Congress will meet the deadline, McCarthy unhesitatingly replied, "yes."

When is the deadline anyway?

Initially, the U.S. Department of the Treasury estimated that the U.S. government would no longer be able to pay its debts as of June 1. Others put the actual default date closer to mid-June.

However, on Friday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote a letter to McCarthy in which she said the default date will be June 5.

Yellen wrote:

Based on the most recent available data, we now estimate that Treasury will have insufficient resources to satisfy the government’s obligations if Congress has not raised or suspended the debt limit by June 5.

When a reporter, on Saturday morning, asked McCarthy whether Congress will meet the debt ceiling deadline, it is this June 5 deadline that the reporter was referring to.

Deal reached?

Later on in the day on Saturday, after some more debt ceiling negotiating took place, McCarthy suggested that a deal has been reached, at least in principle.

"We still have a lot of work to do," McCarthy said. "But I believe this is an agreement in principle that's worthy of the American people."

The House speaker went on to provide a glimpse of the deal, saying:

It has historic reductions in spending, consequential reforms that will lift people out of poverty into the workforce, and [it will[ rein in government overreach. There are no new taxes, no new government programs. There's a lot more within the bill.

What now?

Any deal reached between McCarthy and the White House will have to be passed by both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.

In the House, McCarthy has consistently stated that he will abide by the 72-hour rule - in other words, that he will give members of the House a full three days to read the bill over before being asked to vote on it. McCarthy has also reportedly been in talks with the Senate about how much time it will need.

McCarthy, on Saturday, said that he expects the text of the deal to be given to lawmakers on Sunday.

He also said that he hopes to have the House vote on the bill by Wednesday.