A bill suspendin𝓀g the nation’s debt ceiling until 2025 is now in the hands of the Senate, a major step toward averting a government default that threatened economic catastrophe. 

The bill, the result of a deal brokered by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last weekend, passed the house Wednesday night in a bipartisan 314-117 vote, overcoming opposition from the most conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats who had objected to the compromise. The bill caps federal spending for two years, curtailing some of Biden’s budget priorities, without the major cuts that Republicans had demanded. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill as early as Thursday.

The House vote was a🌠 major milestone on the road toward ending a standoff between Democrats and Republicans over the debt ceiling, the government’s self-imposed limit on how much it can borrow to pay expenses that Congress has already approved. 

The government is set to run out of money to pay its bills as soon as Monday, officials at the Treasury Department have warned. A first-ever default on U.S. national debts would have 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:potentially disastrous conse✱quences for the global economy, economists have said.

The bill reduces federal spending deficits by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, compared to what would have been spent had it not passed, the Congressional Budget Office estimated Wednesday.

The bill, dubbed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, limits federal non-military spen🐭ding wi♋thout touching mandatory expenses like Social Security and Medicare payments. Among the bill’s provisions:

• Capping discretionary non-defense spending for the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years, holding spending about flat for 2024 and raising it 1% in 2025.
  
• Rescinding about $27 billion of unspent COVID-19 relief funding from various programs.
  
• Taking $20 billion from the IRS and makes it available for other spending. The agency received $80 in new funding over the next 10 years to combat tax cheats and support modernization efforts as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
  
• Expanding work requirements for those who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamp) benefits to cover able-bodied people up to age 54 from 49 while exempting veterans and other groups— changes that will cost the government an extra $2.1 billion rather than saving money, the CBO estimates. 
• Officially putting an end to the pandemic-era pause on interest and required payments for federal student loans, 60 days after June 30, in line with what the ওBiden administration already said it would do. The bill prevents the administration from backtracking and extending the pause as they have done multiple times before.