The House of Representatives approved on Wednesday the agreement on the debt ceiling negotiated by President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy, after a tense vote just days before the United States may default on its obligations with serious economic consequences.
The vote in the Republican-majority House approved the measure by 314 in favor and 117 against, with 149 Republicans added to 165 Democrats.
While the deal between McCarthy and Biden has drawn harsh criticism from hardliners within the Republican Party who want more cuts to federal spending, the House Rules Committee had voted 7-6 Tuesday to send the measure to the floor on Wednesday.
[Immigration System Failures Have More Than One Million Asylum Seekers 'Released']
The legislation called the Inflation Reduction Act will now go to the Democratic-led Senate, where it needs 60 votes in favor before reaching Biden's table.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-Calif., and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have said they plan to support the bill.
Debt ceiling negotiation tests McCarthy's leadership (and a concession he made)
May 30, 202301:45
"I'm confident we'll pass the bill," McCarthy, R-Calif., said Tuesday.
The White House had also urged lawmakers to quickly pass the measure as the United States nears a June 5 deadline to raise the debt ceiling or risks an economically catastrophic default.
The agreement raises the debt limit by two years and includes a budget deal for the same time with modest cuts to public spending.
[Nikki Alcaraz, the Latina mother who disappeared during a road trip with her boyfriend, is found safe]
House Republican leaders had hoped to lose some votes, especially from members of the hard right, who felt the deal was not aggressive enough on spending cuts to pass it. That required the support of some Democrats to get over the finish line, though Democratic leaders had claimed the responsibility lay primarily with Republicans.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to Announce Presidential Bid, Reports Say
May 31, 202300:27
"My expectation is that House Republicans will remain committed to getting at least two-thirds of their conference, which is about 150 votes," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters Tuesday. "Democrats are committed to making sure we do our part and avoid default," he added.
Jeffries declined to say how many Democrats would vote for the bill, but said he was confident the country would raise the debt ceiling on time.
McCarthy said he had not spoken with Jeffries about how many Democratic votes he would need, but said he expected Wednesday's final vote to be bipartisan.
"Anytime there's a two-party deal, there's always two parties voting for it in the end," McCarthy said.
President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated the deal for weeks. NBC News/Getty Images, AP
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., declared himself a "yes" vote and had predicted that "a supermajority" of House GOP members would support the bill. "It's a reasonably good and responsible project," he said.
What the legislation includes
The legislation limits spending for the next two years. It includes conservative measures that would recover about $28 billion of unspent COVID-000 relief funds, eliminate $19.1 billion of Internal Revenue Service funding, and transfer about $400 billion of the $20 billion the IRS obtained through the Inflation Reduction Act to non-defense funding.
[How the Debt Ceiling Agreement Can Affect Federal Student Loan Holders]
The bill will also resume payments on federal student loans, following a long pause that began early in the pandemic. And it will add work requirements for people up to age 55 to receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (the current threshold is 50), with exceptions for veterans and the homeless.
Members of the far right had harshly criticized the move.
Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., said the conservative policy provisions were actually "fictitious suggestions for change" that are meaningless. "In effect, what they have done" is a "clean" extension of the debt limit, without substantial policy additions, he argued, describing it as a surrender to Biden's demands.
Most Republicans and Democrats want to "put behind us" the impasse over the debt ceiling
May 29, 202301:56
"There's nothing there," said Bishop, who also disagreed with the deal's willingness to extend the debt ceiling for two years until the next presidential election. "If they're going to tacitly make a clean debt ceiling, let it be short," he added.
Senators opposed to the measure, such as Mike Lee, R-Utah, have procedural tools they could use to delay passage beyond Monday's deadline. Schumer has encouraged its members to act quickly to avoid default.
"When this bill reaches the Senate, my plan is to bring it to the floor as soon as possible for consideration," Schumer said. "Senators must be prepared to act urgently to send a final product to the president's desk by the June 5 deadline."
With information from NBC News