with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to avoid a debt default without offering any Republican votes in favor of the final legislation.
The House passed the bill Tuesday night in a near-party-line vote of 222 to 212, with only one Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger , joining Democrats in support. The freshly passed measure gives Senate Democrats the ability to introduce legislation that would raise the nation's current debt limit of $28.5 trillion by an amount that's yet to be announced, thereby preventing a default that Treasury Secretary Janet YellenIn a note to clients on Wednesday, Bank of America economists said they believe the debt limit increase will likely be in the $2 trillion to $2.
For months, lawmakers have been bitterly divided over how to address the United States' growing debt load of more than $29 trillion. Democrats and Republicansa temporary funding deal in early October and raised the debt limit by $480 billion, but two months later, those funds are set to run dry.
reporters Wednesday of the fast-track solution."We've been telling our Republican base for four months that [Democrats] are spending money by themselves, and they should raise the debt ceiling by themselves."If Congress fails to raise or suspend the debt ceiling once the federal government hits its borrowing limit, the Treasury