Debt ceiling bill passes House, on its way to Senate
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The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Fiscal Responsibility Act Wednesday evening in a bipartisan show of support for the deal crafted by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The House passed the bill in a 314-117 vote, with 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats opposing the measure.
Prior to the vote, Rep. Jason Smith, R-MO., opened the hour-long debate by saying that House Republicans took action to address the debt ceiling “while the White House was saying they would only accept a blank check debt ceiling increase — an idea that did not and does not have the votes, even in a Senate controlled by the president’s own party.”
Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., countered by saying that “Republicans are always in favor ... of balancing the budget when there’s a Democratic president.”
“That’s the reality of it,” he added.
House Leaders Jeffries, McCarthy address House prior to vote on debt ceiling
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that “the extreme MAGA Republicans” were responsible for creating “the moment of crisis.”
“From the very beginning, House Democrats were clear that they will not allow extreme MAGA Republicans to default on our debt, crash the economy, or trigger a job-killing recession,” he said, adding that Democrats kept their promise.
“The question that remains right now is what will the House Republican majority do? It appears that you may have lost control of the floor of the House of Representatives,” he said in reference to an earlier procedural vote where more than 50 Democratic lawmakers changed their votes to ensure the bill could come before the House.
According to NBC News, Democrats waited to see if Republicans would be able to pass the rule on their own before switching their votes, setting the stage for a vote on the full bill later in the day.
“I probably would have done the same thing,” McCarthy told reporters. “Well played.”
In remarks on the House floor, McCarthy recalled his meeting with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office in February, when he hoped negotiations over the debt ceiling would begin. But instead, McCarthy said that Biden refused to engage and Republicans had to take charge of negotiations.
“Tonight, we’re going to vote for the largest savings in American history — over $2.1 trillion,” he said.
“Runaway spending is also making America dependent on foreign debt holders. The total debt we owe to other countries is $7.4 trillion dollars,” he said. “This is unsustainable, but even worse — it's dangerous.”
But, McCarthy said, the debt ceiling bill he helped negotiate is turning the ship around on “Washington’s spending addiction.”
House Reps. debate changing procedure for debt ceiling bill
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., chairman of the House Rules Committee, which cleared a procedural measure for the bill on Tuesday in a 7-6 vote, addressed the House floor prior to the procedural vote.
“For the first time in history, we are pairing a debt ceiling increase with a year-over-year decrease in spending. We will be spending less in the fiscal year 2024 than we are in the fiscal year 2023 — something that’s never happened before in conjunction with the debt ceiling increase,” he said.
Cole listed what he sees as the many wins the bill includes, like preserving funding for national defense, ensuring that veterans are cared for, clawing back COVID-19 spending, and cutting funding for the IRS.
As the Deseret News reported, the bill also makes changes to programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) by adding work requirements for able-bodied adults up to age 54, up from age 49.
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Cole said changes to SNAP and TANF would help bring people “out of poverty and into the workforce.”
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., ranking member on the Rules Committee, responded to Cole’s remarks. He opened by thanking President Joe Biden for his work on the bill: “I’m sure it wasn’t easy working with our Republican colleagues,” he said.
“This bill is a lot less awful than it could have been,” McGovern said, adding that he had his reservations. “There are better ways to deal with our deficit than to further burden our nation’s most vulnerable.”
McGovern argued for closing tax loopholes instead of cutting the IRS budget.
“It’s clear that the president entered the negotiations trying to protect as many as possible from the GOP’s war on the poor. But at the end of the day, we shouldn’t be making trade-offs for which vulnerable population gets to eat,” McGovern said.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, an opponent of the bill, appeared to get heated while speaking about the dangers of uncontrolled spending.
“I don’t want to hear a whole hell of a lot about what we’re doing to devastate American families with rampant inflation because we keep spending money we don’t have,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., pointed to the Congressional Budget Office’s report that indicated that the changes to the work requirements in the bill will actually increase enrollment in the food stamp program when fully implemented, as CNN reported.
“Under the Trump administration, Republicans blew a hole in the deficit with a $1.5 trillion tax cut package that was unpaid for,” she said.
What’s next for the Debt ceiling bill?
The bill now heads to the Senate, where it could still face hurdles.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican, has said he will use “every procedural tool” to slow its passage, as the Deseret News reported.
Prior to the House session, McCarthy predicted that the bill will garner enough votes and “become law,” according to an NBC reporter.
“We’re going to pass the largest cut in American history,” he said.
MCCARTHY on not having full House GOP support for debt ceiling bill: “It matters it's going to become law…Everybody has a right to their own opinion. But on history, I'd want to be here w/ this bill today.”
+ says he plans to create a bipartisan commission to look at the budget pic.twitter.com/HpUudTvC97— Julia Jester (@JulesJester) May 31, 2023
Meanwhile, Biden, who is traveling to Colorado, told reporters he hopes lawmakers will make the right decision,
“God willing, by the time I land, Congress will have acted, the House will have acted and we’ll be one step closer,” he said.
