Biden signs debt limit bill, but December standoff is coming

By Alexander Jaffe | Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden connected Thursday signed into instrumentality a measure raising the nation’s indebtedness bounds until aboriginal December, delaying the imaginable of an unprecedented national default that would origin economical disaster.

The House passed the $480 cardinal summation successful the country’s borrowing ceiling connected Tuesday, aft the Senate approved it connected a party-line ballot past week. The eventual support came aft a protracted standoff with Senate Republicans, who derailed archetypal Democratic efforts with filibusters, delays that necessitate 60 votes to halt.

Ultimately, a fistful of Senate Republicans agreed to articulation Democrats and voted to extremity GOP delays and determination to a last ballot connected the legislation, but Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said Republicans volition connection nary enactment for different summation successful December.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had warned that the U.S. would deed its borrowing bounds Monday, an unprecedented concern that she and others cautioned could pb to economical catastrophe for a federation inactive reeling from a planetary pandemic. Routine authorities payments to Social Security beneficiaries, disabled veterans and active-duty subject unit would perchance beryllium delayed, and the economical fallout successful the U.S. could ripple done planetary markets.

The transition of the short-term indebtedness ceiling summation ensures that, for now, the U.S. volition proceed to conscionable its obligations. But it sets up different imaginable cliff astatine the extremity of the twelvemonth — astatine a clip erstwhile lawmakers volition besides beryllium moving to walk a national backing measure to avert a authorities shutdown.

Republicans person said Democrats should usage a budgetary maneuver to walk an summation successful the indebtedness bounds without Republican support, similar the process Democrats are utilizing for Biden’s monolithic clime alteration and societal information nett plan. But Democrats person resisted that option. The clash betwixt the 2 parties leaves Congress without a wide solution to avert the adjacent default deadline successful December, but the White House has emphasized it is inactive pursuing a bipartisan increase.

Lawmakers from some parties person utilized the indebtedness ceiling votes arsenic leverage for different priorities. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threatened to ballot against raising the indebtedness ceiling erstwhile President Donald Trump was successful office, saying she had nary volition of supporting lifting the indebtedness ceiling to alteration Republicans to springiness different taxation interruption to the rich. And Republicans successful 2011 managed to coerce President Barack Obama into accepting astir $2 trillion successful shortage cuts arsenic a information for expanding the indebtedness bounds — though lawmakers aboriginal rolled backmost immoderate of those cuts.

Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.