House passes bipartisan bill to raise debt ceiling and cap future spending

The House on Wednesday night passed legislation negotiated by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to raise the nation’s borrowing limit and cap future spending.

The so-called Fiscal Responsibility Act – harshly criticized by both hard-line Republicans and far-left Democrats passed the lower chamber in a 314-117 vote.

The bill now heads to the Senate with only five days to go before Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the government will run out of cash to pay debts. 

Seventy-one Republicans joined 46 Democrats in opposing the bill agreed upon between Biden and McCarthy over the Memorial Day weekend. 

The 99-page bill to suspend the nation’s debt limit through 2025 in order to avoid a possible federal default, while limiting discretionary spending, was supported by 149 Republicans and 165 Democrats. 

Four members did not vote.

Ahead of the vote, McCarthy implored lawmakers to vote in favor of the bill, arguing that it is “good for the country.” 

“I for one, Mr. Speaker, don’t want to be on the wrong side of history. Yeah, I could say I’m gonna vote no because there’s something not in the bill. If I took that philosophy, I would never vote yes. I simply read the bills in front of me and decide, ‘Is this good for the country?’ I would say that answer is easily yes,” McCarthy said on the House floor during debate on the measure.

“When you vote on this bill today, somebody will have a better job tomorrow because of your vote. Families will be stronger and more self-sufficient. People will be lifted out of poverty,” he added. “This is going to save families money and make America less dependent on China, changing America for the better for decades to come.”

Earlier Wednesday, 29 Republicans voted with the 158 Democrats against the rule to bring the debt ceiling bill up for debate and a final vote in the lower chamber. 

Fifty-two Democrats swooped in near the end of the vote to help 189 Republicans push the critical rules for debate over the finish line in a 241 to 187 vote. 

The bill narrowly made it out of the GOP-controlled House Rules Committee on Tuesday, advancing in a 7-6 vote, with Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Ralph Norman (R-SC) voting with Democrats on the panel against the measure that would add roughly $4 trillion to the national debt.

The bipartisan bill raises the federal debt ceiling to $31.4 trillion and would limit non-defense discretionary spending to 1% annual growth, claw back tens of billions of dollars in unspent COVID-19 relief funds and tie food benefit programs to work requirements.

It would cut $136 billion in federal spending, at least $1.4 billion of which would come from the Internal Revenue Service — far less than the $72 billion cut Republicans passed in one of their first bills this Congress to thwart the hiring of an additional 87,000 IRS agents via Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

The House Freedom Caucus opposed the compromise bill and several of its members declared ahead of the vote their intention to vote against it. 

House progressives urged Biden to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally by invoking the 14th Amendment and expressed frustration that the president allowed the GOP to hold the country “hostage” by tying spending caps to the nation’s debt limit. 

“Tonight I’ll be voting NO on Republicans’ hostage bill that maliciously weaponized the debt limit,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) tweeted prior to Wednesday’s vote.

“I came to Congress to stand up for our NY-16 community, kids, and families, but this austerity bill will only end up hurting the people I came here to fight for,” the member of the far-left “Squad” of House lawmakers added. 

“This bill will make the poor poorer, hungrier, and sicker, while further enriching the rich through the prison, fossil fuel, and military industrial complex,” Bowman continued. “Let me make two things clear: The United States will not default on our debt. And we should never sacrifice hardworking Americans families to the far-right Republican hostage-takers in the name of compromise.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have both indicated they will back the bill in the upper chamber, which could vote to send the legislation to Biden’s desk by the end of the week. 

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) derided the debt ceiling bill on Wednesday as a “deal from hell.”

“This deal begs the question, with Republicans like these, who needs Democrats? We deserve better,” he said on the Senate floor. “We deserve a deal that genuinely reflects the urgency of our economic challenges and delivers meaningful results.”

The Treasury Department had initially pegged the nation’s “X-date” on which it could default as June 1, before revising it to June 5 last week. 

Credit rating agency Fitch put the US on “negative watch” last week amid the high stakes debt ceiling bill negotiations, warning y that the country’s AAA rating could be downgraded if a deal to raise the nation’s borrowing wasn’t reached.