(C) Common Dreams
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Debt limit deal clears key hurdle; more land mines await [1]
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Date: 2023-05-30
Bipartisan legislation to suspend the debt limit until after the 2024 elections cleared its first critical hurdle Tuesday night, when the House Rules Committee backed the terms for floor debate that is scheduled for Wednesday.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and President Joe Biden, who negotiated the package, appear likely to have the votes to pass the measure, despite rising anger from the GOP majority’s hard-right flank and some concerns on the left as well.
First, party leaders need to adopt the rule on the floor — a key test of how far conservative holdouts are willing to go to sink the bill. Since rule votes are typically along party lines, enough GOP defections could cause leadership to have to go back to the drawing board.
The Rules Committee has nine Republicans and four Democrats, but three of the GOP members are fiscal conservatives who could have derailed the entire process even before the rule hit the floor if they stuck together and voted against it in committee. One of the three, however, backed the rule during the panel's meeting Tuesday.
“I anticipate voting for this rule,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said earlier in the Rules meeting. Massie won inclusion of his proposal to automatically cut current spending by 1 percent if full-year spending bills haven't been enacted by Jan. 1, 2024; backers say that's a major incentive for lawmakers to complete the appropriations process by then.
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[1] Url:
https://rollcall.com/2023/05/30/debt-limit-deal-clears-key-hurdle-more-land-mines-await/
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