Congress

House Passes Bill to Avert Shutdown, Raise Debt Ceiling

Written by SK Ashby

With only six days of legislative session remaining before a potential government shutdown occurs at 12:01 a.m. on October 1st, the House of Representatives has passed a comprehensive package to fund the government, provide disaster relief funding, increase funding for Afghanistan refugee resettlement, and increase the debt ceiling through the next year.

The fate of the package is uncertain, however, as Democrats reportedly expect Republicans will actually filibuster the package because it will increase the debt ceiling.

Democrats are reportedly considering a backup plan.

It is not yet entirely clear what Democrats plan to do after the bill fails to advance in the Senate, likely later this week.

One alternative would be to strip the debt ceiling provision from the funding bill and to pass it in order to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1. Democrats could then use the fast-track budget process to pass a debt ceiling increases without Republican support.

But Democrats want Republicans to share political responsibility for the debt, which was increased under both Republican and Democratic administrations, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Republicans were united in opposition to that prospect.

Republicans will never accept or share responsibility for literally anything. With that in mind, I think we can safely predict that Democrats will be forced to split their legislation and raise the debt ceiling on a party-line vote.

I would say the "Party of Personal Responsibility" is dead, but it never really existed.