Biden signs debt ceiling deal into law, averting historic default

US President Joe Biden signed into law Saturday a bill to suspend the nation’s debt limit through January 1, 2025, to avert a first-ever US default. 

“I just signed into law a bipartisan budget agreement that prevents a first-ever default while reducing the deficit, safeguarding Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and fulfilling our scared obligation to our veterans,” Biden said in a tweet, which was accompanied by a short video of him signing the bill. 

“Now, we continue the work of building the strongest economy in the world,” the president added.

Suspending the debt limit through early 2025 takes the threat of default off the table until after next year’s presidential election. In addition to addressing the debt limit, the law caps nondefense spending, expands work requirements for some food stamp recipients and claws back some Covid-19 relief funds, among other policy provisions.

The bipartisan deal to address the debt limit was struck 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 fall apart entirely. 

To get the bill over the finish line, lawmakers raced the clock ahead of June 5, the date the Treasury Department had warned it would no longer be able to pay all of the nation’s obligations in full and on time – a scenario that could have triggered global economic catastrophe.

The time frame to pass the bill through Congress was extremely tight with little room for error, putting enormous pressure on leadership in both parties. The House passed the bill on Wednesday and the Senate passed it on Thursday.

Once agreed to, the deal faced backlash from both the far left and the far right, but ultimately won support from a wide array of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, many of them moderates. 

CNN