Debt limit battle moves to Senate as default date approaches
Debate on a bipartisan bill to suspend the debt limit and impose spending caps headed to the Senate on Thursday, where leaders from both parties rushed to halt efforts to derail it in time for it to be cleared for signature by President Biden before a possible government bankruptcy would occur. Monday.
The morning after the House overwhelmingly passed legislation, Sen. Chuck Schumer, New York Democrat and Majority Leader, said the Senate would remain in session until the package was approved. He warned lawmakers against entering into brinkmanship before the so-called X-date, when Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen has said the government will run out of money to pay its bills.
“Time is a luxury the Senate doesn’t have if we want to avoid default,” Schumer said. “June 5 is less than four days away. At this point, any unnecessary delay or last-minute hold-up would be an unnecessary and even dangerous risk.”
But the Senate’s timetable for action was in flux, with officials warning the bill would not pass until Friday at the earliest and critics voicing displeasure with the plan.
Even as the deal migrated through the Capitol, the effects of the debt cap continued to squeeze. The Treasury announced on Thursday that it will postpone auctions of quarterly and six-month “bills” — short-term debts the government no longer has room to contract — until the borrowing cap is suspended.
Multiple senators have said they would propose amendments to the bill, which would suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling for two years while cutting spending on domestic programs. They have the option to procedurally delay the measure if they are denied the opportunity.
Senators negotiated which amendments would be allowed on the floor, but Mr. Schumer was determined to defeat them. Any change would force the measure back to the House, where no action is likely before the default deadline.
“Any change to this bill that forces us to send it back to the House would be completely unacceptable,” he said. “It would almost be a guarantee of non-payment.”
Among those seeking votes is Virginia Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine, who on Thursday called for the removal of a provision from the legislation that would speed up the approval of an oil pipeline in West Virginia.
“I support improving the permitting process for all energy projects,” said Mr. Kaine. “But Congress putting its thumb on the scale so that a specific project doesn’t have to go through the same process as everyone else is the very definition of unfair and opens the door to corruption.”
Several conservative Republicans also want to propose deeper cuts in the measure, while others criticized the Pentagon’s spending figures in the bill, saying they were too low and could hamper military preparedness. But making changes on this point would prove problematic and derail the legislation. Leaders probably set the threshold for approval of amendments at 60 votes to make them easier to beat.
After setting much of the legislative agenda for the past two years, the Senate left debt limit negotiations to Mr Biden and Chairman Kevin McCarthy, whose demands for spending cuts and other policy changes pushed the country to the brink of bankruptcy. . As a result, senators had little influence over the negotiations and are now forced to pass legislation they did not participate in.
But Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, urged his fellow Republicans to support the plan.
“Last night, an overwhelming majority of our colleagues in the House voted to approve the agreement Speaker McCarthy reached with President Biden,” he said. “In doing so, they have taken an urgent and important step in the right direction for the health of our economy and the future of our country.”
Joe Rennison contributed reporting from New York.