Good morning. I'm Playbook editor Mike Tobonis. It's Monday, May 15th, and here's what's driving the week ahead in Washington.

It's going to be all about the vibes this week as we look for clues how the big debt ceiling standoff is going to get resolved.

We're just two weeks away from a potential federal default and a plan meeting between President Joe Biden, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and other

congressional leaders was delayed last week as senior aides worked behind the scenes to set the

table for a potential deal. Those staff-level meetings continued through the weekend, and

we're expecting the principals to get back together tomorrow to discuss next steps. Biden was

keeping it positive over the weekend. He told reporters in

Rojavith Beach, I really think there's a desire on their part, as well as ours, to reach an agreement,

and I think we'll be able to do it. That sounds great, but we're going to be closely parsing any

statements coming out of tomorrow's meeting, and we're going to be closely watching for any new

updates out of the Treasury Department, who can tell us when the so-called X-state is going to hit, and we're going to be closely watching for any new updates out of the Treasury Department

who can tell us when the so-called X-state is going to hit, and we will actually go into federal

default. Biden, meanwhile, is going to face a big decision later this week. Will he embark

Wednesday on his long-planned Pacific Rim trip with the death talks and settled? The White House

indicated over the weekend that he still

plans as of now to attend the G7 summit in Japan, which kicks off Friday and end Sunday.

What might be a lot iffier are his plans for a subsequent visit to Papua in New Guinea,

that's on May 22nd a week from today, and to the Quad Leaders Summit in Sydney on May 24th.

Also this week, we're going to get our first chance to hear firsthand from the executives most responsible for the high-profile

turmoil in the regional banking industry. Former Silicon Valley Bank and signature bank executives

are set to testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday and the House Financial

Services Committee on Wednesday.

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