Democrat, Republican Leaders Strike Deal on Debt Ceiling

Senate leaders struck a deal Thursday to avoid a government shutdown, extending the debt ceiling into December.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced the agreement between him and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), which would raise the debt ceiling by $480 billion through December 3. Government funding will also expire on December 3.

Schumer filed cloture on the House amendment to S. 1301, the legislative vehicle for the debt ceiling. This means that the Senate could vote as early as Thursday to avert a government shutdown.

Although the government will not shut down in October due to the fighting between Senate Republicans and Democrats, it will only punt the fight into December. Schumer initially tried to extend the debt ceiling into December 2022, one month after the 2022 congressional midterm elections.

McConnell said that the deal would give Democrats time to resolve the debt ceiling question.

“The pathway our Democratic colleagues have accepted will spare the American people any near-term crisis while definitely resolving the majority’s excuse that they lacked time to address the debt limit” through reconciliation, McConnell said on the Senate floor.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said that the deal will only delay potential negotiations between the two parties until December.

“This is the only offer that we got from Sen. McConnell that didn’t involve the byzantine process of reconciliation,” he said Wednesday.

“The bottom line is, Republicans know they’re going to get blamed for this. They’ve come to the table with a proposal that at least gets us to December. And hopefully, by December they’ll realize that doing this three months at a time isn’t in their interest,” Murphy said.

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.