The Debt Ceiling is Back and Congress Faces Fall Deadline to Lift It

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the House Democrats will face a critical test later this year when they are confronted with the need to raise the debt ceiling.

Will the House leader urge her members to pass a clean raise of the debt ceiling? Or will the Democrats attempt to tie it to other issues important to Democrat voters?

The Treasury Department is taking the first steps to keep the government from exceeding the $22 trillion debt limit, which goes back into effect on Saturday, setting off what will likely be months of battle in Congress on finding ways to avoid an unprecedented default on the national debt.

Treasury said that it began on Friday suspending sales of a special type of Treasury security that is used by state and local governments to help manage their bond holdings.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last week that the government would start with this sales suspension as a way to clear space to keep the government from exceeding the limit while Congress debates raising the limit.

The debt limit has been suspended for the past year under an agreement approved by Congress as part of a February 2018 budget deal. However, that legislation had the limit ceiling going back into effect on Saturday at whatever level the debt stood at on Friday.

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