By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday said lawmakers have made progress toward crafting legislation to raise the federal government’s borrowing authority and is optimistic that a U.S. government default will be avoided.
“We have made good progress on this issue and I am optimistic that we will be able to prevent the awful prospect of the U.S. defaulting on its sovereign debt ever,” Schumer said in a speech to the Senate.
On Monday, House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he hoped that chamber could vote as soon as this week on a debt limit increase bill, ahead of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s request that Congress do so by Dec. 15.
Neither Schumer nor Hoyer provided details on how this will happen given that Republicans refuse to offer their support for any debt limit increase. Democrats hold razor-thin majorities in Congress and need cooperation from Republicans, especially in the Senate, to advance legislation.
Ideas being considered included attaching some sort of debt limit increase language to a bill authorizing defense programs or allowing the Biden administration to raise the debt limit in a way that could be blocked only by a congressional vote of disapproval.
It was not yet clear whether either of these paths would be embraced by congressional leaders.
The Bipartisan Policy Center last week estimated that as soon as Dec. 21 the Treasury Department could run out of “extraordinary measures” to keep government borrowing and debt payments limping along without congressional action.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Berkrot)
