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US House passes bill to raise debt ceiling just
days before default
With 149 Republicans and 165 Democrats supporting the
measure, Biden has called on the Senate to quickly take up the legislation
Joan E Greve in
Washington
@joanegreve
Thu 1 Jun
2023 00.00 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/31/debt-ceiling-final-vote-house-congress
The House
passed a bill to raise the debt ceiling on Wednesday, clearing a major
legislative hurdle with just days left before the US is expected to default.
The final
House vote was 314 to 117, with 149 Republicans and 165 Democrats supporting
the measure. In a potentially worrisome sign for the House Republican speaker,
Kevin McCarthy, 71 members of his conference opposed the deal that he brokered
with President Joe Biden.
Taking a
victory lap after the bill’s passage, McCarthy downplayed concerns over
divisions within the House Republican conference and celebrated the policy
concessions he secured in his negotiations with Biden.
“I have
been thinking about this day before my vote for speaker because I knew the debt
ceiling was coming. And I wanted to make history. I wanted to do something no
other Congress has done,” McCarthy told reporters after the vote. “Tonight, we
all made history.”
Biden
applauded the House passage of the legislation, calling on the Senate to
quickly take up the legislation to avoid a default. The treasury secretary,
Janet Yellen, has warned that the federal government will be unable to pay its
bills starting 5 June unless the debt ceiling is raised.
“This
budget agreement is a bipartisan compromise. Neither side got everything it
wanted,” Biden said in a statement. “I have been clear that the only path forward
is a bipartisan compromise that can earn the support of both parties. This
agreement meets that test.”
The debt
ceiling bill passed by the House would raise the government’s borrowing limit
until January 2025, ensuring the issue will not resurface before the next
presidential election. As part of his negotiations with Biden, McCarthy
successfully pushed for government spending cuts and changes to the work
requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
However,
the concessions that McCarthy won fell far short for members of the freedom
caucus, who had pushed for steeper spending cuts and much stricter work
requirements for benefits programs. They belittled the debt ceiling compromise
as a paltry effort to tackle the nation’s debt, which stands at more than
$31tn.
Representative
Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, chair of the freedom caucus, said on Twitter
before the vote, “President Biden is happily sending Americans over yet another
fiscal cliff, with far too many swampy Republicans behind the wheel of a ‘deal’
that fails miserably to address the real reason for our debt crisis: SPENDING.”
House
freedom caucus members staged one last attempt to block the debt ceiling bill
from advancing on Wednesday afternoon, when they opposed a procedural motion
prior to the final vote. With 29 Republicans voting against the motion,
McCarthy had to rely on Democratic assistance to advance the debt ceiling
proposal. In the end, 52 Democrats voted for the motion, setting up the final
vote and virtually ensuring the bill’s passage.
The House
Democratic leader, representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, mocked
McCarthy’s failure to unify his party, arguing the procedural vote proved the
speaker has “lost control of the floor”.
“It’s an
extraordinary act that indicates just the nature of the extremism that is out
of control on the other side of the aisle,” Jeffries said during the floor
debate before the final vote. “Extreme Maga Republicans attempted to take
control of the House floor. Democrats took it back for the American people.”
Despite his
sharp criticism of McCarthy and his Republican colleagues, Jeffries and the
majority of the House Democratic caucus supported the debt ceiling bill.
Although they lamented the spending cuts included in the bill, those Democrats
argued the crucial importance of avoiding a default outweighed their personal
concerns about the legislation.
“Our
constitution makes perfectly clear the validity of the public debt of the
United States shall not be questioned,” said California representative Nancy
Pelosi, the former Democratic House speaker. “While I find this legislation
objectionable, it will avert an unprecedented default, which would bring
devastation to America’s families.”
But dozens
of progressive lawmakers opposed the bill, attacking the spending cuts and new
work requirements procured by McCarthy as an affront to the voters who elected
them.
“Republicans
never cared about reducing the deficit, only about forcing through their
anti-working family policy priorities under the threat of a catastrophic
default,” said Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
“The deal they passed tonight proves that point, and I could not be part of
their extortion scheme.”
Progressives
in the Senate, including Senator Bernie Sanders, have echoed that criticism and
indicated they plan to oppose the debt ceiling proposal, but the bill still
appears likely to become law. The Senate Democratic majority leader, Senator
Chuck Schumer of New York, has pledged to act swiftly to take up the bill once
it has passed the House. The Senate Republican minority leader, Senator Mitch
McConnell of Kentucky, has already indicated he plans to support the proposal
as well.
“Any
needless delay, any last-minute brinksmanship at this point would be an
unacceptable risk,” Schumer said in a floor speech Wednesday morning. “Moving
quickly, working together to avoid default is the responsible and necessary
thing to do.”
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