Senate Passes Debt Limit Bill

 

Debt Ceiling

Senate Passes Debt Limit Bill

The legislation passed the Senate by a vote of 63-36, ensuring the federal government will not run out of money to pay its bills on Monday. It now goes to President Biden, who will address the nation on Friday.

 

What to know about the Senate’s passage of the debt limit bill.

Carl Hulse

Updated

June 1, 2023, 11:29 p.m. ET31 minutes ago

31 minutes ago

Carl Hulse

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/06/01/us/debt-ceiling-senate-vote

 

After weeks of political impasse, tense negotiations and mounting economic anxiety, the Senate on Thursday night gave final approval to bipartisan legislation suspending the debt limit and imposing new spending caps, sending it to President Biden and ending the possibility of a calamitous government default.

 

The approval by the Senate on a 63 to 36 vote brought to a close a political showdown that began brewing as soon as Republicans narrowly won the House in November, promising to use their new majority and the threat of a default to try to extract spending and policy concessions from Mr. Biden.

 

The president refused for months to engage with Speaker Kevin McCarthy but finally did so after the California Republican managed in April to pass a G.O.P. fiscal plan, spurring negotiations with the White House that produced the compromise last weekend.

 

On Thursday night, Mr. Biden cheered its passage, promising to sign the measure as soon as possible and address the nation from the Oval Office on Friday evening.

 

“Tonight, senators from both parties voted to protect the hard-earned economic progress we have made and prevent a first-ever default by the United States,” he said. “No one gets everything they want in a negotiation, but make no mistake: This bipartisan agreement is a big win for our economy and the American people.”

 

As in the House, Democrats carried the measure to passage in the Senate, with 44 of them and two independents joining 17 Republicans in support; 31 Republicans, four Democrats and one independent voted “no.”

 

The agreement suspends the debt limit until January 2025, allowing the government to borrow unlimited sums to pay its debts and assuring that another fight will not occur before the next presidential election. It sets new spending levels that will be tested as Congress begins to write its annual spending bills. Other policy changes on energy project permitting and work requirements on social benefits were also included.

 

“We saved the country from the scourge of default,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, exulted after the bill cleared Congress.

 

Here’s what else to know:

 

The vote came after Senate leaders cut a deal with Republican critics of the plan who had complained that it would under-fund the Pentagon, and demanded a commitment that Congress would in the future consider a separate bill to beef up military spending. They resolved the dispute with a formal statement saying that the debt-limit deal “does nothing to limit the Senate’s ability to appropriate emergency supplemental funds to ensure our military capabilities.”

 

Until now, the Senate had largely been sidelined during the fight over the debt ceiling. Late Wednesday night, the House passed the compromise legislation by a 314-117 vote that saw more Democrats back the bill than Republicans. Democrats had to help Mr. McCarthy bring the bill to a floor for a vote after a revolt by far-right Republicans who complained bitterly that it did not do enough to cut spending.

 

The deal would suspend the $31.4 trillion borrowing limit until January 2025 and cut federal spending by $1.5 trillion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, by effectively freezing some funding that had been projected to increase next year and then limiting spending to 1 percent growth in 2025. The legislation would also impose stricter work requirements for food stamps, claw back some funding for I.R.S. enforcement and officially end Mr. Biden’s student loan repayment freeze. Read more about what’s in the bill.