Senate Republicans and Democrats reached a deal for a process to raise the debt ceiling, as the House passed a bill late Tuesday approving the bill to do so.
The bill, which also prevents cuts to Medicare and other threatened programs, results from weeks of talks between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Wall Street Journal reports. The bill itself doesn’t raise the debt ceiling, rather creates a procedure for an additional vote on the issue that requires a simple majority in the Senate.
At least 10 Republicans will have to support the legislation, and McConnell said Tuesday that he was confident the proposal would get the votes.
“I believe we’ve reached here a solution to the debt ceiling issue that’s consistent with Republican views of raising the debt ceiling for this amount at this particular time and allows the Democrats to proudly own it, which they’re happy to do,” McConnell said.
The bill passed in the House with a 222 to 212 vote.
“Our goal has been to increase the debt limit,” Schumer said. “We want a simple majority without a convoluted, risky, lengthy process, and it looks like the Republicans will help us facilitate that, so we feel very good about where we’re headed on the debt ceiling.”
