The United States House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill in a 220-212 vote that creates a one-time workaround for Congress to quickly raise the debt ceiling. Extending the federal government’s borrowing limit has been a political hot potato for more than a decade, resulting in a governing-by-crisis pattern that periodically sparks fears of a catastrophic default on the nation’s $29 trillion national debt.
The news follows an agreement that was reached between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) on Tuesday afternoon.
The bill allows the Senate to raise the debt limit by a specified amount with a majority vote, allowing Democrats to avoid a filibuster.
Most crucially, the House measure would also temporarily strip Senate Republicans of the ability to filibuster the next debt ceiling increase – a tactic that they have ruthlessly employed on an array of proposals put forth by Democrats – which Schumer will file once the main bill is passed.
McConnell has signaled that his caucus can live with it – this time.
“I believe we’ve reached here a solution to the debt ceiling issue that’s consistent with Republican views of raising the debt ceiling for this amount at this particular time and allows the Democrats to proudly own it,” McConnell said at a Tuesday news conference.
