WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday announced an agreement to extend the debt limit through early December, temporarily ending a partisan standoff just 11 days before the government’s deadline to avert default.
“It is our hope we can get this done as soon as today,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor.
The deal would raise the limit by $480 billion, which is the figure U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says is needed to get to Dec. 3, according to according to one Democratic and two Republican Senate aides familiar with the agreement.
The agreement could serve as the basis for a short-term fix as the nation faces an Oct. 18 deadline to lift the limit. A vote on the agreement is possible Thursday and would need 60 votes to prevent what the Treasury Department warns would be an economic calamity if the country defaults for the first time.
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“Republican and Democratic members and staff negotiated through the night in good faith,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday. “The Senate is moving toward the plan I laid out yesterday to spare the American people a manufactured crisis.”
On Wednesday, McConnell said Republicans would not filibuster a temporary extension of the debt limit as long as Democrats put a dollar amount on the increase, giving them more time to enact a long-term solution on their own.
“This will moot Democrats’ excuses about the time crunch they created and give the unified Democratic government more than enough time to pass standalone debt limit legislation through reconciliation,” McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement.
Sahil Kapur contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
