Congress Out of Session as Jan 19 Debt Ceiling Deadline Looms

The U.S. Congress is out of session with just two days to go before the Jan. 19 deadline for the federal government to raise the $31.4 trillion debt limit.

The U.S. Treasury Department It is estimated that the debt ceiling would be reached by Jan. 19, and that the department would need to adopt a plan. “extraordinary measures,” If Congress hasn’t taken action. 

According to the, the district work period for the new, Democrat led Senate runs from January 4-Jan 20. legislative calendar. The Senate will not be returning until Feb. 6. The GOP-led House will be out of session until January 24.

In December, the Democratic Congress, with the help of votes from Republicans in the 50-50 Senate, passed a year-long, $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill that didn’t address the debt ceiling. Through the remainder of fiscal year 20,23, the bill increased domestic and defense spending over fiscal year 2022.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whose party was still the House minority at that time, advocated a short-term financing bill to allow the GOP-led House the chance to negotiate a larger spending plan in January. Despite Republican winning the House majority, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell maintained that the door was open for a long-term funding bill. In the end, 18 Senate Republicans voted in support of the bill.

Conservative Republicans have called for spending cuts in exchange for voting to increase the debt limit, but President Biden and his allies in Congress want a clean increase to the debt ceiling without any strings attached. 

McCarthy stated that he was open to discussing the issue with Biden, but on Tuesday the White House informed reporters that Biden wasn’t open for negotiations.

“There’s going to be no negotiation over it,” Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press secretary, said Tuesday that the White House wants Congress raise the debt limit. “without conditions.” 

Biden could not negotiate and the House GOP could stop voting to increase the debt ceiling. That would lead to a partial government shutdown, until some kind of agreement is reached. It is not clear if lawmakers will return to recess in time to reach an agreement on the debt limit. 

“There will be Republicans who will say we need to reform, we need to use this as a vehicle to try to put some limits on our spending, on our debt and our deficits,” On Sunday, Chris Stewart, Utah Republican Rep., spoke on CBS’s “Still Life” “Face the Nation.” “And I am one of them, and there are many others who will be.”