A bill to raise the US debt ceiling to $31.4 trillion and prevent a catastrophic default was backed by the House Rules Committee on Tuesday. That will put it to a vote on Wednesday. The Republican-controlled committee voted seven yeses and six noes to bring the bill to a vote in the lower house of Congress.
Congressman Thomas Massey, a leading Republican hardliner on the influential House Rules Committee, said on Tuesday he would support sending a bipartisan debt ceiling deal. to the vote, an important first step to advancing President Kevin McCarthy’s deal with President Joe Biden and preventing a catastrophic default.
The rules committee, which decides which bills can be put to a vote in the House of Representatives, was directly challenged by two more of the three hard-line Republicans McCarthy added to the committee as a condition for winning the presidency.
Ahead of the meeting, far-right committee members Chip Roy and Ralph Norman said they planned to vote against the deal unless it was changed at their request.
The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday it expects the budget deficit to be reduced by about $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years if the debt ceiling bill, which is currently l voted on in Congress, is adopted in its present form.
The forecast comes after an agreement reached over the weekend between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The agreement is expected to be voted on Wednesday.
The deal will delay raising the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025, limit federal spending for 2024 and 2025, return unused COVID relief funds to the public treasury, speed up the approval process for some energy projects, and will include additional work requirements for Americans on diet. assistance.
“Planned non-mandatory spending cuts will amount to $1.3 trillion between 2024 and 2033,” the Budget Office said on Tuesday, adding that the bill would cut mandatory spending by $10 billion and that budgetary revenues would fall by $2 billion over the decade. . .
Interest on the national debt will fall by $188 billion, he added.
The bill, if passed by Congress, would prevent the government from defaulting on its debt. The compromise has drawn fire from conservative Republicans and progressive Democrats, but Biden and McCarthy are betting on securing enough votes on both sides.
McCarthy predicted he would win the support of a majority of fellow Republicans for the deal, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffreys said he expected Democratic support.
The 99-page bill authorizes more than $886 billion in security spending in fiscal year 2024 and more than $703 billion in non-security spending in the same year, not including some adjustments. It also authorizes a 1% increase in security spending in fiscal year 2025.
If the House of Representatives passes it, the bill will go to the Democratic-controlled Senate, where the vote could stretch into the weekend if lawmakers in that House try to slow it down.
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