(Bloomberg) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell met Thursday to discuss the need to boost the nation’s debt ceiling sometime around mid-December.

The meeting comes two days after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen indicated to lawmakers that they risked a U.S. government default if they failed to lift the legal debt ceiling by Dec. 15, telling them that “there are scenarios in which Treasury would be left with insufficient remaining resources to continue to finance the operations of the U.S. government beyond this date.”

“We had a good discussion about several different issues that are extent here as we move toward the end of the session, and we agreed to keep talking to try to get somewhere,” McConnell said as he left Schumer’s office.

This meeting indicates that McConnell and Schumer are looking for a more smooth path to address the debt ceiling after a last-month clash that rattled financial markets. Congress approved the short-term debt limit increase.

Republicans have demanded that Democrats use the tedious budget reconciliation process to raise the debt limit without GOP votes, while Schumer continues to insist that any boost in the nation’s limit on borrowing authority be bipartisan. Schumer reiterated this on Tuesday. McConnell, when asked about his position, simply said he’s sure the ceiling will be increased.

“We’ll figure out how to avoid default,” McConnell said. “We always do.”

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland stated that Democrats have taken the same position as last time. Republicans must consent to a debt ceiling increase passing with a simple majority and without filibuster. This would allow Democrats in the 50-50 Senate the ability to quickly clear the bill.

“As of today, it’s still do the right thing or get out of my way,” Van Hollen said.

‘Good-Faith Efforts’

John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican said on Thursday that they had already held informal talks about the next debt-limit hike and expressed optimism about their prospects. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican Senator, stated on Thursday that they had already held informal discussions about the next debt limit hike and were optimistic about their prospects.

“We’ll see how this thing ends up getting landed, but I think there are good-faith efforts being made to try and create a process where Democrats can deliver the votes to raise the debt limit and Republicans have the opportunity to vote against it,” Thune said.

Yet several senior GOP lawmakers on Thursday indicated Republicans aren’t ready to budge from their insistence on Democrats using the reconciliation process.

“We cannot default,” Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio said on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power.” “The Democrats control the White House, the House and effectively the Senate,” so “they have the ability to do it on their own,” he said of a debt-ceiling increase. “They should, and they know that.”

Clash for October

Pennsylvania Republican Senator Pat Toomey pointed out an October proposal that would speed up reconciliation so an increase can happen in a faster timeframe, which will limit the time that is taken from the Senate’s other work.

“My proposal is that Democrats can pass the debt limit all by themselves and that’s what they should do,” Toomey said. “What they don’t want to do is use the tool that’s readily available to them, because it requires them to disclose the massive amount of debt that they want to inflict upon the American people.”

After the Senate passed the October debt ceiling increase, there was much brinkmanship. But that all ended when McConnell proposed a plan that would allow Democrats to prolong the ceiling beyond the Dec. 3 deadline. McConnell faced harsh criticism from former President Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz, both Republicans from Texas.

McConnell received enough Republican votes for the measure to move to final passage. However, this was only after an ongoing struggle which occurred even though the Senate debt limit bill was being debated on the Senate Floor on October 7. After the vote, he sent a terse letter to President Joe Biden warning that “I will not provide such assistance again if your all-Democrat government drifts into another avoidable crisis.”

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