2023 United States debt-ceiling crisis

On January 19, 2023, the United States hit its debt ceiling. This started a crisis, as part of a debate within Congress about how the government should spend money and how it should deal with the national debt. Because of this, Janet Yellen, the Secretary of the Treasury, started using "extraordinary measures" until the crisis was over. On May 1, 2023, Yellen gave a warning that these measures could stop working by June 1, 2023. This date was later changed to June 5.

The debt ceiling had been increased a few times until December 2021, each time without any requirements. This was after a debt-ceiling crisis in 2013. When the 2023 crisis started, members of the Republican Party thought that the debt ceiling should only be increased with a requirement that the government only spends as much money as it did in 2022. Members of the Democratic Party wanted to pass a "clean bill" to increase the debt ceiling without any requirements, which had happened 3 times while Donald Trump was President.

If the government had run out of money, the United States Treasury would have had to either default on its debt or decrease payment of money owed to companies and people that had been mandated but not given enough money by Congress. Many people thought that either situation would make the economy crash. If the government had not been able to give new debt, it would have had to decrease the amount of money it could have spent by an amount equal to about 5% of the size of the American economy. , a scholar who studies the United States constitution, said that defaulting would not be allowed because of the 14th Amendment and the government would have to pay its debt back even after hitting the debt ceiling. President Joe Biden said that he was thinking about using the 14th amendment because he thought he had the authority to, but did not know whether it could be used in time to stop the default, since it might be appealed.

On May 27, Biden and Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the House at the time, made a deal to increase the debt ceiling but limit government spending. The deal became a bill, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which passed the House on May 31 and the Senate on June 1. Biden signed it into law on June 3, ending the crisis.

 Agreement 
The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 is an act of the 118th United States Congress that stopped the debt ceiling until January 2025. It ended the crisis. This law was supported by leaders of both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.

Patrick McHenry introduced it on May 29, 2023 based on an agreement between Biden and McCarthy. The House approved it on May 31, and the Senate on June 1. Biden signed it into law on June 3.

 References 

Category:January 2023 events
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Category:March 2023 events
Category:April 2023 events
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Category:2023 in the United States
Category:United States federal legislation