11/18/2021

Schumer, McConnell Meet to Discuss Debt Limit

The debt ceiling has become a politically volatile issue

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) met yesterday to discuss plans to address the looming debt limit. The debt ceiling has become a politically volatile issue as Republicans blocked initial efforts to raise the debt limit through 2022 and have insisted that Democrats should own their own spending agenda and address the debt ceiling in December through the reconciliation process without Republican votes.

In October, the House and Senate cleared a short-term increase in the nation’s debt limit, ensuring the federal government can continue paying its bills into December and averting a potential default that would likely have had catastrophic fallout on the economy. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made clear at the time that he and Senate Republicans will not go along with raising the debt limit again in December.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress this week that the federal government could default on its debt soon after Dec. 15 without congressional action.

Schumer and McConnell did not share details of their meeting to discuss the issue and McConnell was noncommittal as to whether Republicans have changed their minds about helping to advance another debt limit increase. “We’ll figure out how to avoid default, we always do,” McConnell told The Hill.

This article was provided to OSAP by ASAE's Power of A and Inroads.