The Senate voted Thursday to avert a looming debt crisis — but only temporarily.
Lawmakers approved legislation that would provide the Treasury with approximately $480 billion in borrowing authority until Dec. 3.
The 50-48 vote, with no Republicans voting in favor, followed a bipartisan agreement that came after a weekslong standoff between Republicans and Democrats over government spending and long-term borrowing.
The measure must win approval from the Democratic-led House, which can pass it with a simple majority.
SENATE DEMOCRATS ANNOUNCE SHORT-TERM DEAL TO RAISE FEDERAL BORROWING LIMIT
Some Senate Democrats celebrated the short-term deal, arguing Republican leaders “caved” to pressure after voting to block earlier legislation to increase the nation’s borrowing limit.
Other Democratic lawmakers said the extension was too short and would create a new fiscal cliff at the end of the year. The Dec. 3 expiration of federal borrowing authority will occur on the same day a temporary government funding measure expires.
“Sounds like a disaster,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat.
But both parties were eager to end the brinkmanship over the debt limit amid warnings from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that if Congress did not authorize new borrowing by Oct. 18, the federal government would begin defaulting on loans.
“It must be resolved immediately,” Yellen said Wednesday.
Republicans broke the impasse hours after Yellen spoke, offering to vote for a short-term extension.
The GOP had rejected earlier attempts by Democrats to suspend the debt ceiling until December 2022. Republicans argued it would be used to pay for a massive social welfare spending package Democrats plan to jam through Congress without any GOP support. Democrats seek up to $3.5 trillion to pay for a broad array of new government programs and subsidies.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said the short-term deal would give Democrats enough time to employ a budgetary tactic to pass a long-term debt limit increase without a single GOP vote. Democrats had argued there was not enough time to increase the debt ceiling unilaterally by Oct. 18.
Republicans voted to advance the short-term measure to the floor on Thursday.
“This takes an argument off the table, which is that they didn’t have enough time” to pass a long-term deal without GOP support, said Majority Whip John Thune, a South Dakota Republican. “ This buys them some time.”
The national debt exceeds $28 trillion, and the next long-term increase or suspension of the borrowing limit will push it over $30 trillion.
A group of fiscal conservatives argued ahead of the vote the government is overspending to the point of advancing the nation toward financial ruin.
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“If we are not careful,” said Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, “we are going to spend this country into oblivion.”
