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EU: Senate approves higher debt ceiling, avoids suspension of payments

  • June 2, 2023
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The Democratic-controlled United States Senate approved this Thursday an agreement reached between the White House and the Republicans. raise the debt ceilingthereby preventing the suspension of payments in

The Democratic-controlled United States Senate approved this Thursday an agreement reached between the White House and the Republicans. raise the debt ceilingthereby preventing the suspension of payments in the country.

WITH 63 votes for and 36 against, The bill passed the last legislative hurdle before it ended up in the Oval Office, where President Joe Biden signed.

The bill was approved by the Senate the day after the Republican-held lower house approved it and four days from the deadline set by the Ministry of Finance in which the United States could default on its public debt.

“The United States can breathe easy because with this process we avoid suspension of paymentsThis was announced shortly before the vote by House Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

With these words, Schumer announced an agreement with a group of senators wayward Republicans who had recently threatened to drag out the process if the Democrats had not made a commitment to increase the defense budget more than the agreement itself provides.

After his speech, he began a long process of proposing amendments, which, however, did not prevent the passage of the bill. ratified in the form in which it was approved the day before by the House of Representatives.

The measure suspends the debt ceiling for the next two years, until the November 2024 presidential election. In particular, suspends the current $31.4 trillion debt limit. dollars until January 1, 2025.

Instead, an agreement reached over the weekend between the White House and Republicans in the lower house provides for, among other things, limiting spending on programs funded by Congress andn areas such as health care, education, justice or the environment.

Under this treaty, non-defense expenditures remain the same in fiscal year 2024 and will increase by 1% in fiscal year 2025.

Besides, toughens job requirements to access social benefitssuch as food stamps, and will cancel the unspent $28 billion that was earmarked for pandemic relief programs.

At the same time, he cuts part of the new funds allocated to the state treasury in order to redistribute them to non-defense items, and suggests resumption of payments by university students the debt they have accumulated.

After voting ended around 11:00 p.m., Schumer defended the project for achieving three “extremely important” goals: avoid suspension of paymentskeep most of the investments approved by Biden so far, and exclude the most extreme sentences from Republicans.

“Summary of tonight this is good news for our economy and for American families,” the Democrat said.

In a similar vein, Biden himself spoke in a statement released shortly after the vote, in which he said that hopes to sign the rule “as soon as possible” and announced that he would give a speech on the subject on Friday.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also noted the approval of the pact in a statement in which she also criticized the use of a debt ceiling for negotiations.

“I continue to believe that the faith and credit of the United States should never be used as a bargaining chip“The person in charge said.

Shortly after Biden, returning to the White House after an Air Force graduation ceremony in Colorado, where suffered a spectacular fall received a call from former President Barack Obama in which the former president asked about a vote in Congress, the government said.

The agreement’s approval in both houses of Congress was critical to keeping the country from defaulting on its national debt after the debt ceiling was hit last January. a legal limit on the money the US can borrow to meet its obligations.

(EFE)

Source: Aristegui Noticias

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