Votes on Measures to Adjust the Statutory Debt Limit, 1978 to Present
Released: 2018-05-10T00:00:00

Introduction

Almost all borrowing by the federal government is conducted by the Treasury Department, within the restrictions established by a single, statutory limit (ceiling) on the total amount of debt that may be outstanding at any time. By law, the Treasury cannot exceed federal debt limits, so the Treasury periodically has had to ask Congress to enact new debt limits so it can fulfill its financial commitments. Since 1978, 58 measures adjusting or suspending the statutory debt limit either as stand-alone legislation or as part of legislation dealing with other matters have been enacted into law.

During the 115 th Congress, on March 15, 2017, a previously enacted debt limit suspension period expired. On March 16, 2017, the Treasury Department reset the debt limit at $19,809 billion, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin notified Congress that the Treasury Department would use extraordinary measures to temporarily prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations. These measures were in use until September 8, 2017, when President Trump signed P.L. 115-56 , a measure that included a debt limit suspension through December 8, 2017, and reset the debt limit at $20,456 billion.

On December 8, 2017, the Treasury Department again implemented extraordinary measures, which estimates suggested would prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations until early March of 2018. On February 9, 2018, a continuing appropriations measure, P.L. 115-123 , was enacted that included the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, and, in §30301, a suspension of the federal debt through March 1, 2019.

This report provides tallies of votes on final passage for each enacted measure that adjusted or suspended the statutory debt limit from 1978 to present. Note that because the process for congressional consideration of bills can be complex, attempting to interpret the intent of votes prior to the final vote on passage of a measure may yield various, and sometimes conflicting, interpretations. For the sake of clarity, this report only provides vote information on the final passage of each measure.

Debt Limit Votes: 1978 to Present

In addition to information on debt limit legislation and votes on final passage in the House and Senate, other data elements identified in the tables below include bill numbers; roll call votes, voice votes, or passage by unanimous consent; dates of final passage and vote tally information; dates of enactment and public law numbers for the enacted laws; and brief background information on whether the measures were considered as stand-alone measures (i.e., dealing entirely with just a change to the federal debt limit and not including provisions on other matters).

Table 1 provides information on all enacted measures to adjust or suspend the federal debt limit from 1978 to 2018, including data on the specific changes to the federal debt limit set at the time of enactment. The bill number and public law columns of the table provide links to Congress.gov bill summary and status information for each measure. Roll call votes on final enactment can be extracted through the actions tab for each measure within Congress.gov back to 1993. Table 1 also contains cross-references to the notes columns in Table 2 and Table 3 . The notes columns in those tables provide additional details on how each measure was considered.

Table 2 identifies stand-alone measures from the period. Table 3 identifies bills considered as other than stand-alone measures and provides brief background information on the nature of each measure and by what means the measures were considered.

Selected CRS Reports and Resources

CRS Report R44874, The Budget Control Act: Frequently Asked Questions , by [author name scrubbed] and [author name scrubbed].

CRS Report RL31967, The Debt Limit: History and Recent Increases , by [author name scrubbed].

CRS Report R43389, The Debt Limit Since 2011 , by [author name scrubbed].

CRS Report RS21519, Legislative Procedures for Adjusting the Public Debt Limit: A Brief Overview , by [author name scrubbed]