The U.S. Senate is gearing up to vote on legislation to avert a historic national debt default, as lawmakers in the upper chamber of Congress rushed Thursday night to pass a bipartisan fiscal pact.
The pressure in the upper chamber of Congress, which is controlled by the Democrats, came a day after the Republican-led House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation lifting the US borrowing limit and setting caps on new government spending .
The bill that has passed the House and is pending in the Senate mirrors an agreement negotiated over the past two weeks by President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. If no deal is reached, the US risks running out of money to pay its bills by June 5.
On Thursday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate would remain in session until the bill for the debt ceiling was passed. Lawmakers often try to leave Washington on weekends to return to their constituencies, and Schumer’s decision was seen as an attempt to push legislation quickly.
“I hope we can finish the job of putting standard in our rearview mirror very soon,” Schumer said.
He added: “This is the best thing we can do right now for our economy and for American families. I’m optimistic the Senate is going to pull this off, but it will take another concerted, focused, and bipartisan push to get us across the finish line.
The strong bipartisan vote in the House, with 314 lawmakers voting in favor and 117 rejecting the deal, has increased the chances of making it through the Senate quickly. Once approved by the Senate, it is expected to be signed into law by Biden.
To pass the bill, Schumer will need to reach a procedural agreement with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to avoid the legislation being delayed or stalled by attempts to amend it.
There are a number of senators from both parties who oppose the deal or parts of it. While there are no formal limits on defense spending, Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, is concerned that this could lead to limits on the Pentagon’s budget in the future, and she sought assurances that further military spending would be accounted for separately. could be approved.
“You can’t say with an honest face that this military budget is a counterbalance to Chinese aggression, that it sufficiently enables us to defeat Putin,” Graham said. “A military budget should be based on threats, not political deals to avoid default.”
Virginia’s two Democratic senators, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, are objecting to the last-minute inclusion of a provision speeding completion of a controversial natural gas pipeline into the pact.
Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders has said he would vote against the deal because it cuts spending without raising taxes on the wealthy.
But any amendment to the law would have to meet a 60-vote threshold that could be difficult to reach if Schumer and McConnell commit to passing the bill without amendment as soon as possible.
Any amendment to the legislation would send it back to the House, making it nearly impossible to get the bill enacted before June 5.
