Senate Considers House-Passed Debt Ceiling Bill

The House of Representatives late Wednesday night passed The Fiscal Responsibility Act by a bipartisan vote of 314 to 117, setting the stage for the federal debt ceiling to be suspended until January 2025.

The bill, H.R. 3746, was supported by a majority of members from both parties (149 to 71 among Republicans, 165 to 46 among Democrats). The bill makes certain cuts in discretionary spending, rescinds unobligated funds and expands work requirements for some federal programs.

The Democrat-controlled Senate began debate on the bill on Thursday and was still discussing it by Thursday evening, with the goal of sending it to President Joe Biden for his signature before June 5, the date on which the Department of the Treasury has said the U.S. would no longer be able to pay the government’s bills. If the Senate were to amend the measure, it would have to go back to the House for reconciliation, which would delay passage.

In exchange for suspending the debt ceiling until 2025, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California, negotiated increased work requirements for federal benefits programs, including food stamps (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and welfare (Temporary Aid to Needy Families).

The House-passed bill also includes a streamlined permitting process for energy projects and prevents a further pause on student loan repayments past September. It also claws back unspent COVID-related funds and about $20 billion of the $80 billion in additional spending that had been authorized for IRS enforcement efforts.

The Congressional Budget Office, in a May 30 letter to McCarthy about the bill’s impact, projected the bill would reduce federal budget deficits by “about $1.5 trillion over the 2023-2033 period relative to its May 2023 baseline projections.”

Overall, the CBO wrote, “Reductions in projected discretionary outlays would amount to $1.3 trillion over the 2024–2033 period. Mandatory spending would, on net, decrease by $10 billion, and revenues would, on net, decrease by $2 billion over the 2023–2033 period. As a consequence, interest on the public debt would decline by $188 billion.”

During the Senate discussion of the measure senators stressed the importance of not defaulting on U.S. obligations and some Republicans raised concerns about the level of defense spending included in the agreement.

“Defaulting on our national debt is unacceptable, unthinkable—we cannot let it occur,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote that. “So as painful as some of the decisions that will come from this agreement being reached are, they are virtually at this point inevitable to avoid default on our debt.”

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, championed the majority-Republican led House in getting the bill passed.

“The fiscal responsibility act avoids the catastrophic consequences of a default on our nation’s debt,” McConnell said on the floor of the Senate. “And just as importantly, it makes the most serious headway in years toward curbing Washington Democrats’ reckless spending addiction. …. After two years of reckless spending and painful runaway inflation, the American people elected a Republican House Majority to serve as a check on Washington Democrats’ power.”

Other Republican senators used their time to turn to the details of spending, including a push for more defense spending from the White House.

“The defense budget submitted by President Biden and included as the top line in this package is insufficient to the task of fully implementing the national defense strategy at a time when we face serious and growing threats around the world,” said Senator Susan Collins, R-Maine. Collins went on to suggest an “emergency defense supplemental” for the Department of Defense.