The House will vote on a bill to increase the nation’s borrowing limit this week, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Monday.
“I expect to do it, and I hope to do it this week,” Hoyer said. “And we are working toward that objective.”
Republicans and Democrats have been engaged in a battle over the debt limit for months, agreeing to a temporary increase last month that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said would leave the nation in need of new borrowing authority by Dec. 15.
Republicans have refused to pass a long-term increase or suspension of the debt limit, arguing Democrats should pass it unilaterally because they are engaged in reckless spending.
Hoyer said Democrats are weighing different options to push a new debt limit increase across the finish line in the Senate, where at least 10 Republicans are needed to advance the legislation.
Democrats may attack a debt limit increase to the National Defense Authorization Act, a must-pass spending and policy bill that typically garners robust GOP support.
“That’s a possibility,” Hoyer said. “I don’t know if it’s a probability, but it’s a possibility.”
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The NDAA has been hung up in the Senate, where Democrats and Republicans are negotiating additional amendments.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday he expects the House and Senate will work out a final deal on the NDAA “this week.”
Schumer suggested he was close to a deal with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on a new debt limit increase, pledging to address the issue this month and thanking the Kentucky Republican “for his cooperation in that regard.”
Schumer did not indicate whether the Senate would take up a debt limit increase in the next two weeks but said the packed Senate agenda, which includes nominees and President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion social welfare and green energy legislation, “will likely take weekends and late nights to get it done.”
