House to vote on debt limit deal as lawmakers race to avert default

The House of Representatives is on track to vote Wednesday on a bill to suspend the nation’s debt limit through January 1, 2025, as lawmakers race to prevent a catastrophic default.

If the House passes the bill as expected, it would next need to be passed by the Senate before it can be sent to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. In the Senate, any one lawmaker can delay a swift vote and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has told lawmakers to prepare for the possibility of votes Friday or over the weekend.

The timeframe to pass the bill through Congress is extremely tight and there is little room for error, putting enormous pressure on leadership in both parties.

Lawmakers are racing the clock to avert a first-ever default ahead of June 5, the date the Treasury Department has said it will no longer be able to pay all of the nation’s obligations in full and on time, a scenario that could trigger global economic catastrophe.

The bipartisan debt limit deal struck between the White House and House Republicans was announced over the weekend – the culmination of long days and late nights of contentious negotiations that at times looked like they might breakdown and fall apart entirely.

The effort to secure a debt limit deal has proven to be a major leadership test for both House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden.

Suspending the debt limit through 2025 takes the threat of default off table until after the presidential election. In addition to addressing the debt limit, the bill caps non-defense spending, expands work requirements for some food stamp recipients and claws back some Covid-19 relief funds, among other policy provisions.

The deal has faced backlash from lawmakers on the far left and the far right, but a significant number of members on both sides of the aisle – many of them moderates – have…