House Republicans believe they have until late February to act on the debt ceiling, after Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told the Senate on Tuesday that he can continue to juggle the books without a debt ceiling hike into next month.
At a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Mnuchin wasn’t specific about when a debt ceiling hike will be absolutely necessary. But he indicated Congress can put off the work a little longer.
“In December I wrote to Congress providing notification of my determination that a ‘debt issuance suspension period’ would last until January 31st,” he said in his prepared testimony. “As Congress has not acted to suspend or increase the debt ceiling, I have determined that the DISP will be extended into February and will be notifying Congress as such.”
House GOP aides said the Treasury has not given them a specific date, but said the impression on the Hill is that Congress has more than just a week to deal with it.
“We aren’t anticipating hitting the debt ceiling in early February,” one aide said.
“I’m told we aren’t expecting something in early February – I’m assuming they’d have told us if we were going to hit the debt ceiling in the next week,” this aide added.
Another aide agreed that the sense in Congress is they have more time than just a week.
That breathing room is important, as Congress next week has to try to pass a bill extending federal funding past Feb. 8. If they do have a few more weeks, that means Congress will not have to simultaneously consider a spending bill and a bill to boost the debt ceiling.
The new debt ceiling of about $20.493 trillion was imposed in December, after a three-month period during which the debt ceiling was suspended. The U.S. government immediately bumped up against that ceiling, and has been using extraordinary measures, such as deferring borrowing decisions, to avoid exceeding that limit.
