Schumer Urges Action on Debt Ceiling by End of Week

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has told Congress that the limit must be raised by Oct. 18 or the government won’t be able to pay its bills. A default on the debt could have catastrophic financial consequences, and the pressure on both parties to resolve the issue will likely grow as Congress nears the deadline.

“The consequences of even approaching the X date could be disastrous for our economy and devastating to American families,” Mr. Schumer said, referring to the Oct. 18 date.

In his letter, Mr. Schumer didn’t specify what procedural steps he planned to take to increase the debt ceiling, but said Democrats would discuss the issue at their closed-doors lunch on Tuesday.

Republicans have blocked multiple efforts to increase the debt limit on a bipartisan basis, saying Democrats should have to supply the votes on their own, given their decision to pass spending bills without GOP support.

Democratic leaders have said trying to deal with the debt limit through a process tied to the budget known as reconciliation would be risky and time-consuming.

However, it does remain an option for Democrats, who could decide to revise their current budget resolution either to increase the debt limit as a stand-alone bill or fold it into a broader social policy and climate package they are currently writing. That would allow them to move a bill through the 50-50 Senate with just a simple majority, rather than the 60 required of most legislation.

The new instructions for the fiscal year 2022 budget resolution, which has already been approved in both chambers, would have to move through the House as well as the evenly-divided Senate Budget Committee, where Republicans could block it by not showing up and denying the panel a quorum. But provided that Republicans show up and the bill gets a tie vote in the Budget Committee, a simple majority of the full Senate could vote to bring it to the floor, with Vice President Kamala Harris providing the tie breaking vote.

The Senate would then have to hold a debate and a typically-long marathon of amendment votes known as “vote-a-rama” on the new revised budget resolution. Lawmakers would then write the new legislation increasing the debt limit to a specific figure, and that bill would go through the same process.

While top Democrats have argued against using reconciliation to raise the debt limit, their staff has also consulted with the chamber’s nonpartisan parliamentarian to chart out the process for possibly doing so, according to a person familiar with the efforts.

The parliamentarian recently advised both Democrats and Republicans that raising the debt limit through reconciliation wouldn’t interfere with Democrats’ broader social policy and climate bill, which the party is pursuing through reconciliation, the person said.

Write to Kristina Peterson at [email protected] and Gabriel T. Rubin at [email protected]