Senate brushes against default deadline as it moves toward a final debt ceiling vote

Politics

Senate brushes against default deadline as it moves toward a final debt ceiling vote

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Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer of New York walks to his office at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images


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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer of New York walks to his office at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

As the threat of a financial default nears, the Senate has started debate on compromise, bipartisan legislation to lift the debt ceiling with just days to spare.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer kicked off the legislative session on Thursday by warning senators they would stay until they voted on the measure.

“The bill is now in the Senate, where we begin the process today of passing this legislation as soon as possible,” Schumer said. “The Senate will stay in session until we send a bill avoiding default to President Biden’s desk. We will keep working until the job is done.”

The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 passed the House on Wednesday by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 314-117 vote.

On Thursday, the Senate spent much of the day trying to broker a deal among the chamber’s 100 members to speed up the voting schedule. But Senate leaders expressed confidence it would pass.

“I think we’ll get there, but as you know, it’s painful,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Thursday.

To speed up the voting schedule, leaders and rank-and-file senators were trying to reach an agreement on how many amendments would be considered before a final vote on the debt limit bill. However, Schumer warned none of the amendments could be adopted without raising the potential of default.

“Any change to this bill that forces us to send it back to the House would be entirely unacceptable. It would almost guarantee default,” he said.

The bill’s opposition in the House, like in the Senate, has resulted in strange bedfellows. Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders have spoken out against the plan.

“I wanted to like this bill, I wanted to be able to vote for this bill,” said Lee, who has said it falls short from addressing the national debt.

Graham has raised concerns the legislation doesn’t include sufficient funding for defense and Ukraine aid. Sanders has argued the plan raises new concerns about threats to climate change.

The legislation was the result of high-stakes negotiations between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ahead of a debt default.

With his narrow control of the chamber, McCarthy saw the plan win support among majorities of both parties. And ultimately, Democrats played a larger role than Republicans in its passage: 165 Democrats joined 149 Republicans to approve the bill.

House Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., lauded the package, which includes spending changes in exchange for increasing the debt ceiling for two years.

“The deal the House passed last night is a promising step toward fiscal sanity,” he said on the Senate floor. “But make no mistake: there is much more work to be done. The fight to reel in wasteful spending is far from over.”