The House on Tuesday passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) that would fund the government at current levels through December 3, 2021, and would suspend the debt limit through December 16, 2022.
The bill, which passed on a 220-211 party-line vote, also includes supplemental funding for Afghan refugee relocation assistance, funding to support Israel’s missile defense system known as the Iron Dome, and wildfire and drought disaster assistance.
Current government funding runs through September 30, 2021. The House has passed nine of its twelve FY2022 appropriations bills, while the Senate has not passed a single bill. All 12 bills must be identical, pass both the House and Senate, and receive a signature from the President before the government is funded for FY2022.
The debt ceiling expired on July 31, 2021. Congress and the White House in 2019 agreed to a two-year suspension of the debt ceiling, which was set at $22 trillion and took effect as of August 1. An additional $6.5 trillion has been borrowed since that deal was struck, not including a potential $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and $3.5 trillion social spending bill. That puts the total U.S. debt subject to the ceiling at $28.58 trillion. In FY2021, the U.S. is running a roughly $3.1 trillion budget deficit.
The Treasury Department this spring has stated that it would use extraordinary measures to avoid defaulting when the ceiling takes effect. With COVID-19-related uncertainty regarding Congressional action that could affect the Treasury’s cash flows, such as tax credits, fiscal spending, and monetary policy, the exact date at which the Treasury Department could no longer meet its debt obligations is not known.
Senate Republicans have said they do not plan to approve a CR that includes a further suspension of the debt ceiling, complicating the bill’s prospects now that it is in the Senate. Passage of a CR, whether a debt ceiling suspension is included or not, requires 60 votes.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Richard Shelby (R-AL) on Tuesday introduced their own CR, which includes disaster aid, Afghan assistance, and Israeli Iron Dome funding, but not a suspension of the debt limit.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) on Wednesday said he expects the chamber to vote next week on the House-passed CR.
