White House takes signature law off negotiating table in early spending, debt ceiling talks

The White House is drawing its battle lines.

As spending negotiations get underway, the White House has conveyed to congressional negotiators that President Joe Biden's most recent legislative accomplishment, the Inflation Reduction Act, is off the table as the two sides begin to eye potential spending cuts, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The law, which makes historic investments in combating climate change, was targeted as part of House Republicans' bill to cut spending alongside a debt ceiling increase.

That carve-out is one of several that the president and his aides are outlining in the first stage of spending negotiations in which White House officials are focused on narrowing the scope of negotiations by taking non-starter items off the table and beginning a conversation about where spending could actually be cut, the sources said. The goal of staff-level talks, the sources said is more clearly define the contours of spending negotiation.

On Thursday afternoon a White House spokesperson said a meeting planned for Friday between Biden and congressional leaders had been postponed.

"Staff will continue working and all the principals agreed to meet early next week," the spokesperson said.

A source familiar with the meetings said, "It wasn't the right moment to bring it back to principals."