{"id":22584,"date":"2023-04-26T04:50:46","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T04:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/debt-ceiling-vote-poses-a\/"},"modified":"2023-04-26T04:53:44","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T04:53:44","slug":"republican-debt-ceiling-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/republican-debt-ceiling-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican debt ceiling bill delayed in U.S. House panel, prospects uncertain"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Morgan and Katharine Jackson<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A Republican bill authorizing a $1.5 trillion increase to the U.S. debt ceiling, coupled with deep spending cuts over a decade, hit a snag late on Tuesday, as a key committee delayed advancing the legislation to the full House of Representatives for debate and passage.<\/p>\n

The House Rules Committee, the gatekeeper for all legislation in the chamber, unexpectedly went into recess after more than six hours of a hearing, which leaders had hoped would have concluded with the legislation being sent to the full House for debate and a vote on passage this week.<\/p>\n

The panel was now scheduled to return to work at 1:45 a.m. EDT (0545 GMT) on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Hard-right Republicans Chip Roy, Thomas Massie and Ralph Norman huddled in a Capitol hallway during a lengthy Rules Committee recess. They refused to comment on their conversations.<\/p>\n

Even before the problem arose in the Rules Committee, it was unclear whether McCarthy would be able to win passage of this top-priority bill before the House embarks on a week-long recess scheduled to begin this weekend. The House could still try for passage on Wednesday if the Rules Committee votes to advance it.<\/p>\n

Democratic President Joe Biden has pushed for prompt action to raise the $31.4 trillion cap on federal borrowing, but without spending cuts.<\/p>\n

McCarthy and other House Republican leaders were working to shore up support for the bill that would raise the current $31.4 trillion limit on Washington’s borrowing authority. <\/p>\n

Earlier on Tuesday, a trickle of Republicans raised concerns about the bill, and with such a small House majority, nearly all 222 of the party’s lawmakers need to vote yes for the bill to pass.<\/p>\n

McCarthy, who hopes the plan will jumpstart talks with Biden, earlier ignored reporters at the Capitol who asked if Republicans had the 218 votes needed to adopt the measure.<\/p>\n

But, he did say he was ready to move forward without changing the legislation to rally support. <\/p>\n

“Vote on it this week? Yes. This week!” McCarthy said. “If there’s any change, I’ll be sure to tell you. But right now, we\u2019re moving forward.”<\/p>\n

HOUSE FLOOR VOTE<\/p>\n

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday said the bill would lower the federal budget deficit by $4.8 trillion over the next decade if it were to become law.<\/p>\n

“This will pass,” Representative Tom Emmer, the No. 3 House Republican, predicted in an interview. “I’m telling you right now, it will pass the House floor.” <\/p>\n

Regardless of its fate in the House, the proposal has little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate, and the White House said Biden would veto it if it reached his desk.<\/p>\n

“A default would be totally irresponsible,” Biden said. “We’re not a deadbeat nation.”<\/p>\n

Republicans hope a show of unity can force Biden to negotiate after a months-long standoff. <\/p>\n

Washington and Wall Street are focused on the coming “X-date,” possibly just weeks away, when the U.S. Treasury would no longer be able to pay all its bills, triggering a default that would shake the global economy.<\/p>\n

It could be difficult for Congress to raise the debt ceiling before then if House Republicans are unable to unite behind a proposal, analysts say.<\/p>\n

The last prolonged standoff over the debt limit, in 2011, led to a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, which shook financial markets and raised borrowing costs. <\/p>\n

Debt markets are already flashing warning signs as investors grow wary.<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned on Tuesday that a failure to raise the debt ceiling would trigger a “financial catastrophe” that would sharply raise the cost of borrowing money.<\/p>\n

Some Republicans say the current bill does not do enough to cut the deficit.<\/p>\n

“At this moment, I’m a no,” Representative Nancy Mace said. <\/p>\n

Others are pushing for tougher work requirements for social programs, or worry that proposed cuts to renewable-energy tax credits would hurt their home states.<\/p>\n

(Reporting by David Morgan, Katharine Jackson and Richard Cowan; additional reporting by Steve Holland and Kanishka Singh; Editing by David Gregorio, Deepa Babington and Christian Schmollinger)<\/p>\n

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By David Morgan and Katharine Jackson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A Republican bill authorizing a $1.5 trillion increase to the U.S. debt ceiling, coupled with deep spending cuts over a decade, hit a snag late on Tuesday, as a key committee delayed advancing the legislation to the full House of Representatives for debate and passage. The House […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":23209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1214],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-22584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-domestic","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3O0D1-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22584"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23834,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22584\/revisions\/23834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}