About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 1 (March 30, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govelct0001 and id is 1 raw text is: \Congressional ____ * Research Service 2023 Debt Limit: Congressional Consideration of Debt Limit Legislation March 30, 2023 When total federal spending exceeds total federal revenue, it produces a budget deficit. When faced with a deficit, the Department of the Treasury typically issues debt in order to obtain the funds necessary to finance current federal obligations. The amount of money that Treasury may borrow, however, is restricted by a statutory limit on the debt (referred to as the debt limit or debt ceiling). Federal debt approached its statutory limit, currently set at $31.385 trillion, in January 2023, and extraordinary measures implemented by Treasury to prevent a binding debt limit are projected to be exhausted sometime in 2023. In the past 40 years, Congress has enacted 48 legislative measures addressing the statutory debt limit. Typically, such legislation has either (1) increased the debt limit, or (2) suspended the debt limit for a specified period of time. During this period, debt limit legislation has been enacted as stand-alone legislation (often referred to as a clean debt limit bill) about 40% of the time, while debt limit legislation has been enacted as part of a larger legislative package about 60% of the time. Legislation to raise the public debt limit falls under the jurisdiction of the House Ways and Means Committee (House Rule X, clause (t)), and the Senate Finance Committee (Senate Rule 25, paragraph (i)). Either chamber may originate debt limit legislation. While Congress has used certain expedited procedures in the past to consider debt limit legislation (see below), there are currently no expedited procedures available to Congress to use in relation to the debt limit. In general, then, Congress may consider debt limit legislation in the 118h Congress under regular legislative procedures. In the House, this generally means consideration of debt limit legislation using (1) the suspension of the rules procedure, which requires support of two-thirds of Members voting; (2) a special rule reported by the House Rules Committee, which may set the terms for consideration and requires support of a simple majority of Members voting; or (3) unanimous consent, which requires that no Members object. Under regular Senate procedures, a debt limit measure would be subject to extended debate and amendment unless cloture was agreed to (which requires the support of three-fifths of all Senators) or unless, by unanimous consent, the Senate agreed to end debate and move to a vote on the measure. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN12133 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most