The House of Representatives voted to raise the nation’s debt limit by $2.5 trillion, giving the Treasury Department the ability to issue additional new debt until after the 2022 midterm elections.
The final vote in the lower chamber was 221-209. The measure passed the Senate earlier Tuesday and now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk.
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Congress approved the increase on the brink of a Dec. 15 deadline set by Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, who said the government would run out of money to pay incoming bills if lawmakers did not act to raise the debt ceiling.
The measure passed after weeks of bipartisan negotiations that yielded an unusual agreement allowing Senate Democrats to pass the bill Tuesday with only 51 votes instead of the usual 60.
Every Republican voted against the measure in both the House and the Senate. They said Democrats are spending recklessly, racking up new federal debt and causing inflation to skyrocket.
Democrats hope to pass by Christmas a $2.4 trillion social welfare and green energy measure that the Congressional Budget Office found would add $3 trillion to the deficit over a decade if the programs within it are made permanent, as Democrats intend them to be.
“The economy simply cannot absorb those dollars that the federal government is pushing out,” Rep. Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican, said. “We’ve got no place to go except to create more and more inflation. And who does inflation hurt? It hurts those people at the lower end of the incomes spectrum.”
Inflation rose to 6.8% for the year ending in November, the fastest rate since 1982.
Democrats said Congress had “a sacred responsibly” to ensure the nation is able to pay its bills.
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Only a fraction of the debt was accrued by the Biden administration, Democratic lawmakers said, and much of it came from passing a string of COVID-19 aid bills.
“Failing to lift the debt ceiling and defaulting on our debt is not an option,” said Rep. Jason Morelle, a New York Democrat. “The debt limit does not authorize any new spending. It simply allows the government to pay its bills. Much of this debt was accrued on a bipartisan basis.”
