House GOP clears key hurdle ahead of vote on debt ceiling bill

Washington — House Republicans cleared a key hurdle toward passing their legislation to raise the debt ceiling and slash roughly $4.5 trillion in government spending, after GOP leaders made changes to the bill overnight to win over a group of holdouts.

The lower chamber voted 219 to 210 to formally begin debate on the measure on Wednesday afternoon, teeing up a vote on final passage expected as soon as the evening. The legislation, known as the "Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023," would lift the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion or until the end of March 2024, whichever comes first. All Republicans voted to approve the "rule" for the bill, although some GOP members are expected to ultimately vote against it.

While Democrats in the Senate have said they will not consider the measure and President Biden has vowed to veto it, Speaker Kevin McCarthy hopes the House's endorsement will give him leverage over the White House and prompt the president to engage in negotiations over the debt limit.

GOP leaders made tweaks to the original bill to preserve ethanol tax credits that would've been repealed and move up implementation of more stringent work requirements for recipients of food stamps and Medicaid by one year, from 2025 to 2024. 

The revisions to the measure were revealed in the early morning hours and sought to address concerns from a group of Midwestern Republicans, specifically members of the Iowa delegation, who pushed back on the initial bill's unwinding of the tax incentives for biodiesel and other alternative fuels. Changes to the effective-date for the stricter work requirements came after GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said an "essential element" to winning his vote would be to enact the new rules for social safety-net programs sooner.

The changes appeared to have assuaged enough Republicans to clear the House, where the GOP maintains a slim majority. McCarthy can only afford up to four defections in order for the bill to pass. 

Rep. Mark Alford, a Missouri Republican, said he would back the updated bill, telling reporters that McCarthy "came back with a proposal that we were willing to accept and move forth with."

"We've got to get this over the finish line. We've got to get this over to the Senate," he said.

GOP Rep. Derrick Orden of West Virginia said he, too, planned to vote for the revised legislation after he was "swayed publicly" Tuesday night by McCarthy and the broader Republican conference.

"It is our responsibility to get the speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy to the table with President Biden," he told reporters. "The speaker of the House has a burden to bring the president of the United States to a place where he will make sure that he is protecting our progenitors and our progeny."

Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina initially planned to vote no because the bill doesn't balance the budget, but switched her position after meeting with McCarthy on Wednesday. 

"He listened to my concerns, he's willing to work with us on our concerns about balancing the budget," she said. "That was meaningful, that was productive, and I believe it's going to be fruitful in the near future."

While the bill is aimed at jump-starting negotiations, the president has repeatedly said he will only accept a measure that lifts the debt ceiling without conditions.

In addition to raising the debt ceiling, the House GOP's plan freezes spending at levels adopted in fiscal year 2022 and caps future federal spending increase at 1% annually for the next decade. It also claws back unspent federal COVID-19 relief funds, revokes some of the $80 billion for the Internal Revenue Service included in the Inflation Reduction Act and tightens the work requirements for Medicaid and food stamp recipients.

The bill rolls back some of the president's signature policies, including his plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt — two challenges to the debt relief program are pending before the Supreme Court —and climate provisions enacted through the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats' signature health care, tax and climate package.

Congress and the White House are staring down a fast-approaching deadline to suspend or lift the debt ceiling after the U.S. hit its borrowing limit of nearly $31.4 trillion in mid-January, forcing the Treasury to use "extraordinary measures" to avoid defaulting on its debt. 

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated those extraordinary measures could be exhausted as early as July, though the deadline could be reached as early as June depending on the money collected by the IRS as Americans file their taxes.

A default by the U.S. on its debt would be historic and could have catastrophic consequences for the economy.

Rebecca Kaplan and Ellis Kim contributed to this report.