House passes 2-year budget
Deal to lift spending, suspend debt ceiling
“Every now and then you need to sit down and put what’s good for the American people first. We all know that a catastrophic debt ceiling crisis and default, what that would do to our economy, how many people that would put out of work ... These are huge, huge wins.” REP. TOM COLE, R-OKLA.
Washington — The House passed a sweeping two-year budget deal Thursday that would increase spending for military and domestic programs and suspend the debt ceiling through mid-2021, sending the White Housebacked legislation to the Senate.
A large majority of Democrats voted for the legislation, while a majority of Republicans opposed it despite appeals from President Donald Trump to support the bill.
The 284-149 vote was one of the last acts by the House before lawmakers leave Washington for a six-week summer recess. The Senate is expected to act on the bill next week and send it to Trump for his signature before senators, too, leave the Capitol for the summer.
Supporters called the legislation a signal product of divided government, a compromise with something for everyone to love or hate. Democrats touted potential increases in domestic spending; Republicans pointed to possible growth in the Pentagon budget.
And lawmakers in both parties applauded the deal for ratcheting down the budget brinkmanship that characterized the first years of the Trump administration and led to the nation’s longest government shutdown, 35 days, this past winter. Facing warnings that the Treasury Department could run out of money to pay its bills as early as September, lawmakers voted to suspend the nation’s borrowing limit until July 31, 2021, likely removing the threat of a catastrophic, first-ever default.
“Every now and then you need to sit down and put what’s good for the American people first,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. “We all know that a catastrophic debt ceiling crisis and default, what that would do to our economy, how many people that would put out of work ... These are huge, huge wins.”
But conservative Republicans expressed opposition to the deal because it would increase spending by $320 billion over existing law and would suspend the debt ceiling without doing anything to rein in the spiraling deficit and debt.