Debt Ceiling Bill Clears Key Committee, Advances Towards Final House Vote

An agreement to raise the debt ceiling cobbled together by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ahead of a looming deadline to avoid a government default passed its first major test on Tuesday night, with the House Rules Committee voting to advance it to the floor. The vote tallied 7-6, with two of the committee’s nine Republicans and all four of its Democrats opposing the bill. The two Republicans, Rep. Chip Roy (TX) and Rep. Ralph Norman (SC), are members of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus, and argued that the legislation package does not go far enough in curtailing government spending. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), the panel’s third conservative, indicated earlier that he would vote for the bill, saying that “the floor of the House on the actual final passage of the bill” was the place to air one’s concerns. A floor vote on the 99-page Fiscal Responsibility Act is scheduled for Wednesday night. It would then go before the Democratic-led Senate ahead of the Monday default deadline set by the Treasury Department.