On Tuesday, the House voted to increase the debt limit by $480 billion, which is projected to allow the U.S. to meet its obligations through about December 3rd, the same day that the continuing resolution (CR) will expire. The Senate had previously come to an agreement last week before sending it to the lower chamber. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has said that the short-term fix should allow Democrats enough time to address the debt limit in the reconciliation package. However, Senate Democrats have dismissed that idea, which would be a complicated process that would also likely require them to increase the cap by a certain amount instead of suspending it for a period of time. Some have floated nixing the filibuster for the debt ceiling vote, but Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) voiced his opposition to such a strategy earlier this week. “Forget the filibuster, OK? We can prevent default ... there’s a way to do that. There’s a couple other tools that we have that we can use,” Senator Manchin told reporters.
