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By Susan Cornwell and Moira Warburton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved and sent President Joe Biden the first of two bills needed to raise the $ 28.9 trillion federal government debt limit and avoid an unprecedented default. / what-will-happen-if-the-washington-bill-falls-behind-2021-12-03.
The Senate voted 59-35 in favor of the measure, and 10 Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, voted in favor of the bill, which allows the next vote to raise the debt ceiling to pass the House with a simple majority. McConnell said earlier this week that he believed the procedure was for the good of the country because it avoids the default.
The House of Representatives, led by Democrats, passed legislation Wednesday night between 222-212, backed by a single Republican.
Biden is expected to immediately sign an extraordinary procedural measure that will pave the way for a second bill, which would actually increase the government’s borrowing authority, to be approved in the coming days.
“I want to make it clear that this is about paying off the debt accumulated by both parties. So I am pleased that a process with the solidarity members of both parties has facilitated a process that is unnecessary and catastrophic,” said the House’s Democratic majority. Leader Chuck Schumer said he negotiated with McConnell in a speech after the vote on the measure.
“This was a two-way process, and I hope it can be more, and I want to thank leader McConnell for working with us in good faith to get to this point,” Schumer said.
Finance Secretary Janet Yellen has asked Congress to raise the limit before next Wednesday and it looks like Congress is on track to achieve that.
A final vote on the second debt limit bill is expected in the Senate and House on Tuesday.
Republicans have been trying for months to force Democrats to push the debt limit on their own, trying to link the move to the $ 1.75 trillion proposed by Biden’s “Build Better” internal spending bill.
Democrats say legislation is needed to fund the huge debt owed to the Donald Trump administration when Republicans raised Washington’s credit card bill by about $ 7.85 trillion, in part because of tax cuts and spending on the COVID-19 pandemic.
The long-running struggle is still to figure out the actual dollar amount of the new Treasury debt limit, as Washington is expected to cover spending through mid-2022 elections that will determine control of Congress.
‘THE RIGHT THING TO DO’
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who will run for re-election in Alaska next year, told reporters that she had previously voted with 13 other Republicans to pass the first bill because “it was the right thing to do.”
He added that at the time Russia was gathering troops on its border with Ukraine, “we need not send a signal that we will not support the full faith and credit of the United States anywhere in the world.”
Some Republicans, including Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, said they were supporting the measure because it contained provisions to prevent cuts to the Medicare health care program for seniors next year.
But Rep.
The suspension of the blockade came two months after Congress agreed to raise short-term debt to prevent the federal government from failing to meet its unprecedented obligations, which would have dire consequences for the world economy.
In recent years, lawmakers have been confused by raising the legal limit on the country’s growing debt, fearing a backlash from voters.
The emergence of the conservative small-scale “Tea Party” movement in 2010 sparked outrage in Congress over the legislation, even as lawmakers voted to cut debt-causing tax cuts and spending increases.
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