CNN
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The Senate approved a bill late Thursday to suspend the nation’s debt limit until Jan. 1, 2025, averting a first US default just days before the deadline.
The House earlier this week already approved the measure, which can now be sent to President Joe Biden for his signature. Moments after the Senate passed the debt limit bill, Biden praised Congress for its efforts, saying in a statement: “I look forward to signing this bill into law as soon as possible.” The president will deliver an address to the nation on Friday to avoid default.
Suspending the debt limit until 2025 removes the threat of default until after the presidential election. In addition to addressing the debt ceiling, the bill limits non-defense spending, extends work requirements for some food stamp recipients and restores some Covid-19 relief funds, among other political provisions. The Senate voted 63 to 36 to approve the bill.
The deadline for passing the bill in Congress was extremely tight, with little room for error, and put enormous pressure on the leadership of both parties as the threat of default loomed.
To get the bill to the finish line, lawmakers raced the clock to avoid a default before June 5, when the Treasury Department warned that it will no longer be able to pay all of the nation’s obligations in full and on time , a scenario that could trigger a global economic catastrophe.
The bipartisan agreement on the debt limit was reached between the White House and House Republicans — the culmination of long days and late nights of contentious negotiations that at times looked like they might break down and collapse entirely.
The debt limit bill faced backlash from both the far left and the far right, but ultimately won the support of a significant number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer touted the Democrats’ role in the debt ceiling deal after the Senate passed the bill.
“We may be a little tired, but we did it,” Schumer said. “So we’re very, very happy. By default it was the giant sword hanging over the head of the United States, but because of the good work of President Biden, as well as the Democrats in the House and the Democrats in the Senate, it’s not we are in breach”.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement on the passage of the debt ceiling deal, saying “an important step toward fiscal sanity will finally become law.”
The measure passed the House by a wide margin, 314 to 117, on Wednesday.
In addition to addressing the debt limit, the bill includes a wide range of provisions.
The legislation will wipe out roughly $28 billion in unobligated funds from the Covid-19 relief packages that Congress passed to respond to the pandemic, according to the House GOP.
It will withhold $5 billion in funding to accelerate the development of vaccines and treatments against Covid-19, and funding for vaccines and treatments for the uninsured, according to a White House source.
The package will also strengthen the current work requirements of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, primarily by adjusting the work participation rate credits that states can receive to reduce their caseloads.
Work requirements will not be introduced into Medicaid, which House Republicans had called for in their debt ceiling bill.
Under the package, borrowers will have to begin repaying their student loans by the end of the summer, as already announced by the Biden administration, according to a source familiar with the matter. The pause has been in effect since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The package also includes new measures in the National Environmental Policy Act aimed at increasing coordination, predictability and certainty associated with federal agency decision-making, according to the White House source.
It will designate a single lead agency, responsible for preparing a single environmental assessment document, and will also require agencies to complete environmental reviews within one year, or two years for more environmentally complex projects.
This story and headline have been updated with additional updates.
