The bipartisan spending deal announced by Senate leaders Wednesday would lift the debt ceiling until March 2019, meaning that the issue would be cleared from Congress’ docket before the midterm elections.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office said the deal arranged with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would increase the limit until March 1, 2019.
The Treasury currently is up against the limit of just under $20.5 trillion. If Congress doesn’t vote to lift it, Treasury likely would run out of the ability to pay all its bills sometime in March, raising the threat of a catastrophic default on the debt.
Congress already has punted on the debt ceiling once during President Trump’s tenure, voting in September to suspend it until December. After it was reinstated, the Treasury began shifting around government accounts to continue paying incoming bills.
The deal, if approved by Congress, would allow for busting through caps on defense and domestic discretionary spending, increasing government spending by $300 billion to $400 billion over the next two years.
During President Barack Obama’s administration, congressional Republicans sought at various points to tie spending reforms or other policy priorities to votes on increasing the debt ceiling. One of the laws they were successful in winning was the Budget Control Act, which led to the imposition of the spending caps that Wednesday’s deal would ease.
