The House has approved a short-term extension of the nation's debt limit, postponing the danger of an unprecedented debt default until early December. President Biden is expected to sign the legislation, which was approved by the Senate in a party-line vote last week, Politico reports. The $480 billion measure, expected to avert a default until around Dec. 3, passed the House in a procedural party-line vote of 219-206. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer slammed Republicans for allowing only a brief extension of the debt ceiling, calling it a "lousy deal" and an "irresponsible and despicable act for adults who know better."
Hoyer said that he had voted for raising the debt limit 50 times, going back to the Reagan administration, and "nobody has clean hands" on the issue. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that she hopes Congress will pass a longer-term measure in December in a bipartisan way—though she also said that a bill from Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle to transfer dealing with issue to the Treasury secretary "has merit," the AP reports. The federal government is now expected to run out of cash on Dec. 3 instead of Oct. 18, per CNN.
Pelosi also warned Democrats that they should prepare for major cuts to the spending package at the heart of Biden's domestic agenda. "I'm very disappointed that we're not going with the original $3.5 trillion, which was very transformative," she said Tuesday, per the Washington Post. Biden has said a figure closer to $2 trillion is likely to emerge from talks with centrists including Sen. Joe Manchin. Liberal Democrats said Tuesday that they would not accept cuts to measures including fighting climate change and expanding Medicare. (More debt limit stories.)
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