The US Senate is preparing to vote on legislation to stave off a historic default on the country’s debt, as lawmakers from the upper chamber of Congress raced to approve a bipartisan fiscal agreement.
The push in the upper chamber of Congress, which is controlled by Democrats, came a day after the Republican-led House of Representatives. overwhelmingly passed Legislation raising the US borrowing limit and capping new government spending.
After considering a series of amendments, the Senate is expected to cast a final vote on the bill late Thursday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate will remain in session until the debt ceiling bill is approved. Lawmakers often try to leave Washington at the weekend to return to their precincts, and Schumer’s decision was seen as an attempt to get through the legislation quickly.
The bill, which has passed the House of Representatives and is being considered in the Senate, mirrors an agreement that President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated in the past two weeks. If no agreement is reached, the United States Risks She ran out of money to pay her bills on June 5.
“Hopefully very soon we’ll be able to finish the job of defaulting in the rear-view mirror,” Schumer said.
He added, “This is the best thing we can do right now for our economy and for American families. I am optimistic that the Senate will get this done, but it will take a more concerted and focused bipartisan push to get us to the finish line.”
A strong bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives, with 314 voting in favor of the deal and 117 voting against, added momentum to the chances of it passing quickly through the Senate. Once approved by the Senate, it is expected to be signed into law by Biden.
There are a number of senators from both parties who oppose the deal, or parts of it. Although there are no official limits on defense spending, Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, worried that it would lead to future Pentagon budget constraints and sought assurances that more military expenditures could be approved in an appropriate manner. separate.
“You can’t say outright that this military budget is a counter to Chinese aggression, that it allows us to defeat Putin,” Graham said. “The military budget must be based on threats, not on political deals, to avoid default.”
Virginia Democrats Tim Kaine and Mark Warner object to including a last-minute provision to speed up completion of the controversial natural gas pipeline in the agreement.
Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders said he would vote against the deal because it cuts spending without increasing taxes on the wealthy.
Most of the 11 proposed amendments to the law would have to remove a 60-vote threshold that could be difficult to meet with Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell committing to passing the bill unchanged as quickly as possible.
Any change in the legislation would send it back to the House of Representatives, making it nearly impossible to enact the bill before June 5.
