US Senate Races Against Time to Approve Debt Ceiling Increase and Avoid Default

The bill has already been validated Wednesday evening by a large majority of elected members of the House of Representatives.

By Le Figaro with AFP

Published on 06/01/2023 at 7:43 p.m.

The US Senate embarked on a race against time on Thursday to in turn validate an increase debt ceilingand thus avert the threat of a payment default of the world’s leading economic power. “The Senate will remain in session until we manage to adopt a text“, Raising the maximum amount of indebtedness of the country, promised the democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who did not rule out the possibility of a vote this weekend. The bill examined in the Senate has already been validated Wednesday evening by a large majority of elected representatives of the House of Representatives.

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Tough negotiations

The result of fierce negotiations and snatched from the forceps, this agreement must make it possible to avoid the worst: that the coffers of the country find themselves dry on June 5, risking pushing the United States into default. This unprecedented situation would plunge into the unknown the American finance and economy but also, by extension, international. It is to avoid this scenario with potentially catastrophic repercussions that the Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican House of Representatives boss Kevin McCarthy reached that compromise.

The bill makes it possible to raise for two years, therefore until after the presidential and legislative elections of 2024, the maximum amount of indebtedness of the United States, currently at 31,400 billion dollars. In exchange, Democrats agreed to limit some spending, but not as much as Republicans wanted.

‘Not the luxury of waiting’

«The agreement passed by the House last night is an encouraging step towards fiscal consolidation, but make no mistake, there is still a long way to go“, assured the Republican tenor in the Senate, Mitch McConnell. If he invited his peers to validate the agreement, several conservative senators have already announced that they would oppose the text. A big point of contention for the left, the compromise includes modifications to the conditions imposed to benefit from certain social aid. “I cannot, in my soul and conscience, vote in favor of a bill that harms workers“, said the influential senator Bernie Sanders.

The staff of the Congress is however confident, for the moment, on the adoption of the 99-page text. It is in fact very common for last-minute compromises to be reached on this type of file. But “the Senate does not have the luxury of waiting“Insisted Chuck Schumer.