Democrats, Republicans strike deal on debt ceiling: LIVE UPDATES
Both Senate Democrats and Republicans are trading paper on a potential agreement on the debt ceiling while debate continues over infrastructure and reconciliation.
Coverage for this event has ended.
Senate lawmakers voted to approve a short-term increase to the federal debt ceiling on Thursday night, ending a weekslong standoff on Capitol Hill and averting a default that could have triggered a recession.
Senate Democrats passed the $480 billion increase by a simple majority vote of 50-48. The vote on the final measure occurred after 11 GOP lawmakers joined Democrats in a vote to invoke cloture, clearing the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
The bill will now proceed to the House, where lawmakers could consider it by as early as next week. The $480 billion increase is enough to fund the government through at least early December.
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The Senate has approved the motion to invoke cloture on raising the debt ceiling.
A total of 11 Republican senators voted to approve the motion. The motion needed 10 GOP votes to pass.
The GOP yeas were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD), Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Rob Portman (R-OH), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Barrasso (R-WY), Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Roy Blunt (R-MO).
The final vote on the motion to invoke cloture on raising the debt ceiling passed 61-38. A final passage vote is to follow. Only majority vote is needed for final passage.
White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday called the Senate’s debt ceiling agreement a "positive step forward," signaling that the White House would agree to what is approved by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Jean-Pierre discussed the debt ceiling agreement with reporters Thursday during a gaggle aboard Air Force One, during President Biden’s trip to Chicago.
The debt ceiling agreement reached by Senate Republicans and Democrats will raise the ceiling by $480 billion – the amount needed to get the government through Dec. 3 – the same time government funding expires. The agreement likely sets Congress up for another debt ceiling standoff before the Christmas recess.
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Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., said Thursday that it "will be a painful birthing process" to convince 10 Republicans to help move the debt ceiling agreement reached by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Democratic leadership.
"Well, we'll see we're having conversations with our members and kind of figuring out where people are, but as you might expect this is not an easy one to whip," Thune said, according to Fox News' Jason Donner. "We'll be there but it's it's it's it'll be a painful birthing process."
Republicans were initially trying to get unanimous consent to move the debt ceiling bill on Thursday, enabling senators to get out of town before their scheduled recess next week. But without the cooperation of all 100 senators the effort to pass the debt ceiling increase could drag into Saturday and potentially even Sunday.
Top Republicans have expressed confidence that they can get the 10 votes necessary to invoke cloture on a procedural vote on Saturday, which will enable the chamber to get to final passage on the debt limit increase.
But Thune's Friday comments seemed to indicate that the GOP votes are not currently there to reach the 60-vote threshold.
"You never know until you actually have the vote," he said when asked if the 60 votes needed to pass the debt limit increase are there.
Some Senate Republicans are trying to get all of their colleagues to give unanimous consent to move the debt ceiling bill on the floor Thursday, rather than waiting until Saturday as the chamber will otherwise have to, Fox News' Chad Pergram reports.
If the Senate does manage to get unanimous consent to move the debt ceiling increase, the bill could be passed by Thursday night.
If not, it could take into Sunday to pass the bill.
There are multiple Senate Republicans upset that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., agreed to a temporary hike of the debt ceiling. So it is not clear Republicans will be able to round up the votes they need on that plan.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday morning the Senate has an agreement to raise the debt ceiling and is moving toward a likely procedural vote Saturday.
The deal, however, will only postpone a larger fight over the debt limit until just before Christmas rather than fix the underlying impasse.
Fox News obtained the text of the bill which would increase the debt limit by $480 billion. That is just enough money to tide the government over until Dec. 3, which means the Treasury Department will not be able to replenish the coffers it exhausted since July 31 when the previous debt ceiling suspension expired.
Therefore, it will not have the ability to use "extraordinary measures" to keep the government from defaulting for more than a few days, and Congress will be forced to tackle the debt ceiling issue again before Christmas.
Some Republican lawmakers are unhappy with the debt ceiling deal that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell struck with Democrats to temporarily pull the U.S. government back from the brink of a catastrophic default.
A GOP Senate source familiar with the matter told FOX Business that there's some displeasure among Republicans over how the deal was rolled out, with members worried that it's not the best option or the best way to avert a debt crisis. There's also a concern about the narrative Democrats are pushing that McConnell caved by offering a last-minute olive branch.
"This is a complete capitulation," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters on Thursday. "The argument made yesterday was, well, this may be more pressure than two Democratic senators can stand regarding changing the filibuster rules. That, to me, is not a very good reason."
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is one of a handful of Republicans who are upset Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., decided to propose a temporary debt limit increase rather than try to force Democrats to raise the debt ceiling by reconciliation in the next couple of weeks.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News' Jason Donner, Graham lamented what he sees as McConnell's reluctance to stand up to Democrats and "call their bluff."
"I don't understand what we're folding here at the end. This is a complete capitulation and the argument made yesterday was, well, this may be more pressure than two Democratic senators can stand regarding changing the filibuster rules," Graham said. "That to me is not a very good reason. Either you believe in the Senate, or you don’t."
Graham was referencing Democrat efforts to convince Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., to agree to a filibuster carve out to let Democrats pass a debt ceiling increase on party lines without using budget reconciliation.
"I don't blame Democrats for trying to do as much as they can. I do blame us for not fighting back when we can and the idea of using reconciliation to raise the debt limit, where Democrats have to do it by themselves made sense to me then, and it makes sense to me now and today we're going to abandon that strategy," Graham added.
"I’m upset with us because we had a strategy to make them pay a price to raise the debt ceiling and we blinked and why because two people, I don’t know maybe even more are threatening to change the rules of the Senate," Graham also said.
Graham alleged that McConnell caved to Democrats' filibuster threats. Instead, he said, Republicans should "Call their bluff."
The text of the $480 billion debt limit increase bill that Republicans and Democrats agreed on does not explicitly bar the Treasury Department from using "extraordinary measures" to prevent the government from defaulting past the Dec. 3 target date.
But the bill only gives the government enough money to tide the government over until that date, Fox News' Chad Pergram is told.
Therefore, the Treasury won't be able to replenish its coffers between now and then and it won't be able to put off default for months like it did after the debt ceiling suspension expired at the end of July.
This sets up another likely debt ceiling standoff right before Christmas.
The debt ceiling agreement reached by Senate Republicans and Democrats will raise the ceiling by $480 billion, according to Fox News' Chad Pergram.
That is the amount that was needed to get the government through Dec. 3, which is the same time government funding expires.
Because Republicans are still demanding Democrats pass a long-term debt limit extension via budget reconciliation -- and Democrats are refusing to -- another potential debt ceiling crisis could happen around this time.
It is possible that language is included in the bill which would prevent the Treasury Department from using "extraordinary measures" to prevent default, which would mean a massive debt limit fight around Thanksgiving.
If the language is not included the meat of the debt limit fight might wait until next year.
According to Fox News Hillary Vaughn, a GOP Senate source says some Republican senators are unhappy with how negotiations over the debt ceiling played out.
Democrats for weeks refused to cede to GOP demands that they raise the debt ceiling with budget reconciliation. As Congress marched toward a crisis, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered a debt ceiling increase that would prevent the government from defaulting into December.
But some GOP senators believed there were better options that Republicans had. They particularly dislike the Democrats' narrative that McConnell's action represented him caving.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday that despite the fact Republicans agreed temporarily avert an economic crisis, Democrats will eventually have to raise the debt ceiling on their own.
"The Senate is moving toward the plan I laid out yesterday to spare the American people a manufactured crisis," McConnell said on the Senate floor.
"All year the Democratic government has made unprecedented and repeated use of reconciliation to pass radical policies on party-line votes. So back in July Republicans informed our colleagues they would need to pursue any long-term increase in the debt ceiling through the same process," he added.
That, McConnell said amounted to three months notice that they would have to use reconciliation -- a procedural tool that lets a majority in Congress circumvent the Senate filibuster -- to raise the debt ceiling.
"For two and a half months the Democratic leaders did nothing and then complained that they were actually short on time," he said. "Now they have no question there will be plenty of time."
Democrats, however, are still adamant that they will not raise the debt ceiling with reconciliation. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said so on Thursday morning.
This means that in just a few short months the Senate could be back to the same kind of brinksmanship that it's seen in the past couple of weeks.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday that Democrats and Republicans reached an agreement to temporarily raise the debt ceiling, according to Fox News' Chad Pergram.
Schumer said the legislation could be passed through the Senate "as early as today."
The agreement struck by party leaders will only boost the debt ceiling into December. That is when the standoff over whether Democrats should do a longer-term debt ceiling increase via budget reconciliation is likely to rear its head again.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he only offered to help raise the debt ceiling for a couple of months to "moot" Democrats' complaints that raising it with budget reconciliation would take too much time.
But Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Thursday that raising the debt ceiling via reconciliation is not on the table, according to Fox News' Jason Donner.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters after a Democratic policy meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021. (AP)
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., struck an optimistic tone early Thursday and said negotiations to avoid a federal default were progressing, but there was still work to be done.
“We’re making good progress; we’re not there yet, but I hope we can come to an agreement tomorrow [Thursday] morning,” he said, according to the Wall Street Journal. He made the comment shortly after midnight.
Republicans and Democrats are working to determine just how much the debt limit should be increased before the Oct. 18 deadline.
Schumer expressed optimism that a deal could be reached Thursday.
The Hill reported that Republicans want the short-term debt extension to be “tied to a specific number instead of a specific day in December.”
The report said Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, told reporters that the deal would be completed “soon.”
The deal would be a temporary reprieve that could lead to a similar standoff in six weeks. The Washington Post described the debt ceiling clash as a “proxy war over the two parties’ competing agendas.”
Biden enlisted top business leaders to push for immediately suspending the debt limit, saying the approaching deadline created the risk of a historic default that would be like a “meteor” that could crush the economy and financial markets.
McConnell said the deal "will moot Democrats’ excuses about the time crunch they created and give the unified Democratic government more than enough time to pass standalone debt limit legislation through reconciliation.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., refused to sign a letter to condemn the actions of left-wing activists who confronted Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., in a public restroom because the statement did not criticize her "political views," a report late Wednesday said.
CAPITOL ATTITUDE: Congress may not have an infrastructure bill. But at least it has an off-ramp. Democrats and Republicans forged what appeared to be a compromise on the debt ceiling Wednesday.
Lawmakers sometimes steel their positions so deeply that they can’t extract themselves.
They’re stuck on a road to oblivion – as the headlights of a crisis careen down the highway at them.
So everyone searches for an exit. Such was the case with the debt ceiling.
The sides were too entrenched over the politicking of the debt ceiling and the Democrats’ efforts to approve trillions in social spending. But the realpolitik of a national economic crisis loomed. - Chad Pergram
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