Senate opens debate to vote on compromise bill to raise debt limit : NPR

Senate Majority Chief Charles Schumer of New York walks to his workplace on the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photos

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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photos

Senate Majority Chief Charles Schumer of New York walks to his workplace on the U.S. Capitol on Thursday.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photos

As the specter of a monetary default nears, the Senate has began debate on compromise, bipartisan laws to raise the debt ceiling with simply days to spare.

Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer kicked off the legislative session on Thursday by warning senators they might keep till they voted on the measure.

“The invoice is now within the Senate, the place we start the method in the present day of passing this laws as quickly as potential,” Schumer mentioned. “The Senate will keep in session till we ship a invoice avoiding default to President Biden’s desk. We’ll hold working till the job is finished.”

The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 handed the Home on Wednesday by an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 314-117 vote.

On Thursday, the Senate spent a lot of the day attempting to dealer a deal among the many chamber’s 100 members to hurry up the voting schedule. However Senate leaders expressed confidence it will go.

“I feel we’ll get there, however as you already know, it is painful,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., advised reporters on Thursday.

To hurry up the voting schedule, leaders and rank-and-file senators have been attempting to succeed in an settlement on what number of amendments can be thought of earlier than a last vote on the debt restrict invoice. Nonetheless, Schumer warned not one of the amendments may very well be adopted with out elevating the potential of default.

“Any change to this invoice that forces us to ship it again to the Home can be solely unacceptable. It might virtually assure default,” he mentioned.

The invoice’s opposition within the Home, like within the Senate, has resulted in unusual bedfellows. Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Vermont Impartial Bernie Sanders have spoken out in opposition to the plan.

“I needed to love this invoice, I needed to have the ability to vote for this invoice,” mentioned Lee, who has mentioned it falls brief from addressing the nationwide debt.

Graham has raised considerations the laws would not embody enough funding for protection and Ukraine assist. Sanders has argued the plan raises new considerations about threats to local weather change.

The laws was the results of high-stakes negotiations between President Biden and Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy forward of a debt default.

Along with his slender management of the chamber, McCarthy noticed the plan win assist amongst majorities of each events. And in the end, Democrats performed a bigger function than Republicans in its passage: 165 Democrats joined 149 Republicans to approve the invoice.

Home Minority Chief Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., lauded the package deal, which consists of spending modifications in trade for growing the debt ceiling for 2 years.

“The deal the Home handed final night time is a promising step towards fiscal sanity,” he mentioned on the Senate flooring. “However make no mistake: there may be way more work to be carried out. The battle to reel in wasteful spending is much from over.”