The US House of Representatives passed the much-debated debt ceiling bill by an overwhelming majority in a bipartisan vote on Wednesday evening, moving the country closer to avoiding a potentially catastrophic default.
The bill now goes to the Senate, the Democratic majority chamber, where most legislation needs votes from at least 60 senators to pass. It then can move to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
The House vote on Wednesday revealed divisions in the chamber, not only between Republicans and Democrats, but within each party – signaling more resistance ahead.Here are some key takeaways from this vote on the Fiscal Responsibility Act:
Kevin McCarthy’s party faced significant internal resistance
The bill passed by an overwhelming majority, with 314 “yeses” and 117 “nos”. Four members, two Republicans and two Democrats, did not vote.
Ultimately, more Democrats (165) than Republicans (149) supported the measure – something the right wing may use as evidence that the bill was a bad deal for their side. The vote revealed doubts among some Republicans in McCarthy’s leadership of the House, where Republicans hold a slim majority.
Groups of Democrats held off voting for several minutes before the New York Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, held up a green card signaling Democrats who planned to vote yes could do so and help usher the bill out of the chamber.
The progressive representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who voted no, said the hold-up was reminiscent of McCarthy’s confirmation vote in January, when it took him 15 rounds of votes – and concessions to far-right lawmakers – to secure his post.
Other progressive lawmakers who voted against the bill said it set a “dangerous precedent” for its major concessions, such as cuts to non-defense spending and stricter requirements for individuals seeking food stamps.
“This was a deal negotiated while the extreme Maga Republicans held the American people hostage,” said congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, of Washington, who is the chair of the House Progressive Caucus and voted against the bill, in a statement.
Still, the Republican opposition to the bill was much louder than that of progressive Democrats.
After voting against the bill, the Pennsylvania Republican Scott Perry, chair of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, tweeted: “President Biden is happily sending Americans over yet another fiscal cliff, with far too many swampy Republicans behind the wheel of a “deal” that fails miserably to address the real reason for our debt crisis: SPENDING.”
Key Democratic programs and priorities will feel the effects
An estimated 750,000 could lose food stamp benefits due to the new work requirements, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive thinktank. And in another blow to progressives, the bill gives special treatment to the Mountain Valley pipeline.
Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia expressed his ire with the bill, in a sign of resistance it faces in the Senate.
“It’s extremely frustrating because there could have been other vehicles to do it. I mean, it doesn’t have to go into the debt ceiling bill,” Kaine told reporters, referring to the pipeline, which would cut through his state.
A quarter of the $80bn of newly allotted funding to refurbish the IRS will also be cut from Biden’s key legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act.
But it preserves health plans, social security and other programs
The bill will not affect Medicaid benefits, the main government health program for low-income Americans, or social security, even though McCarthy tried to keep the debate open on such programs just hours ahead of Wednesday’s vote. Republicans attempted to cut these plans to curb government spending. However, the bill will avoid more increases to the bloated US defense budget.
And the agreement will fully fund medical care for veterans at the levels included in Biden’s proposed 2024 budget blueprint.
Both Biden and McCarthy are counting this as a win
While critics say the president could have avoided making multiple concessions, the president touted his ability to bring the deal together under heated circumstances, and the bipartisanship he has campaigned on.
“This budget agreement is a bipartisan compromise,” the president said in a statement reacting to the news. “Neither side got everything it wanted. That’s the responsibility of governing. I want to thank Speaker McCarthy and his team for negotiating in good faith, as well as Leader Jeffries for his leadership. This agreement is good news for the American people and the American economy.”
McCarthy, meanwhile, claimed the bill would herald the “largest savings in American history” during the floor debate, though this is not quite accurate.
“I have been thinking about this day before my vote for speaker because I knew the debt ceiling was coming. And I wanted to make history. I wanted to do something no other Congress has done,” McCarthy told reporters after the vote. “Tonight, we all made history.”
The Senate is already making moves to move the bill forward
Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader has already put the debt limit bill on the Senate calendar to start the process on Thursday. There is likely to be some resistance there as well, as progressives such as Bernie Sanders have already signaled their concerns, although the bill is expected to pass.
But senators are seriously limited in their negotiations. Any changes to the bill’s language would send it back to the House for a concurrence vote. The government is expected to run out of money to pay its bill in days, according to Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary, who set the date at 5 June.
Schumer previously warned lawmakers they should prepare to stay in Washington over the weekend for votes if Congress is unable to move the deal through both chambers.
