Majority leader vows to conclude debt deal tonight

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, has vowed to stay in session until the debt ceiling bill that was passed by the House a day earlier is sent to President Biden’s desk.

This comes one day after the House passed the debt ceiling bill in a resounding, bipartisan vote of 314 to 117. The bill would suspend the government’s borrowing limit until January 2025, ensuring the issue will not resurface before the next presidential election.

The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, has endorsed the bill, even as he acknowledged that lawmakers must take further action to tackle the federal government’s debt of more than $31tn.

The deal the House passed last night is a promising step towards fiscal sanity, but there is much more work to be done. The cuts outlined in the debt ceiling bill were deemed insufficient by several Republican senators, who indicated they would oppose the legislation over their concerns that it does too little to rein in government spending. 71 of the House Republicans voted against the bill on Wednesday.