Treasury's Lew urges Congress to quickly pass debt ceiling deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Tuesday welcomed a tentative budget and debt ceiling deal reached in Congress and urged lawmakers to move quickly to pass it. Calling the deal a 'significant accomplishment' Lew also said it showed that bipartisanship agreements were still possible in Washington. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives could vote on the deal, which would include extending the Treasury Department's borrowing authority until March 2017, as early as Wednesday. It would then also need to clear the Senate. Congress has been hurtling toward a Nov. 3 deadline for raising the government's debt limit, after which the Treasury has warned it would be unable to fully pay its bills. Last week, the Treasury Department said it would postpone an auction for 2-year notes originally scheduled for Oct. 27 because it might not be legally able to borrow money when the auction settled on Nov. 2. (Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Paul Simao)