Just days to spare, Senate gives final approval to debt ceiling deal, sending it to Biden

Manama, June 2 (BNA): To fend off a default in the United States, the Senate gave final approval late Thursday to a debt ceiling and budget cuts package, continuing the night to finish work on a bipartisan agreement and send it to President Joe Biden’s desk. to become law before the rapidly approaching deadline.

The compromise deal negotiated between Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy leaves neither Republicans nor Democrats entirely happy with the outcome, according to the Associated Press.

But the result, after weeks of grueling budget negotiations, has abandoned the volatile debt ceiling issue that was threatening to upend the US and global economies until 2025 after the next presidential election.

The approval in the Senate on a bipartisan vote, 63-36, somewhat reversed the House’s overwhelming tally the day before, counting on centrists in both parties to pull the Biden-McCarthy package to pass – though Democrats led the tally in both chambers. .

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said before the vote that the passage of the law meant that “America can breathe a sigh of relief.” Afterwards he said, “We have saved the country from the scourge of default.”

In a statement following the paragraph, Biden said senators from both parties have “demonstrated once again that America is a nation that pays its bills and delivers on its commitments – and always will be.”

He said he would sign the bill into law as soon as possible. “Nobody gets everything they want in negotiations,” the president said, “but make no mistake: This bipartisan agreement is a huge victory for our economy and the American people.” The White House said it will address the nation on the matter at 7 p.m. EST Friday.

In the end, confronting the debt ceiling was a familiar high-stakes battle in Congress, one McCarthy fought and propped up the hard-right Republican majority in the House of Representatives against the Democratic president with a new era of divided government in Washington.

McCarthy refused the routine vote once to allow the country’s debt limit to be raised without concessions, and McCarthy brought Biden’s White House to the negotiating table to reach an agreement imposing spending cuts aimed at reducing the country’s deficit.

Overall, the 99-page bill restricts spending over the next two years, suspends the debt ceiling through January 2025 and changes some policies, including imposing new work requirements on older Americans receiving food aid and green-lighting an Appalachian natural gas pipeline that he opposes. Many democrats. .

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