2023 Debt Limit: Congressional Consideration of Debt Limit Legislation

2023 Debt Limit: Congressional Consideration of Debt Limit Legislation

INSIGHTi

2023 Debt Limit: Congressional Consideration
of Debt Limit Legislation
March 30, 2023
When total federal spending exceeds total federal revenue, it produces a budget deficit. When faced with
a deficit, the Department of the Treasury typically issues debt in order to obtain the funds necessary to
finance current federal obligations. The amount of money that Treasury may borrow, however, is
restricted by a statutory limit on the debt (referred to as the debt limit or debt ceiling). Federal debt
approached its statutory limit, currently set at $31.385 trillion, in January 2023, and “extraordinary
measures” implemented by Treasury to prevent a binding debt limit are projected to be exhausted
sometime in 2023.
In the past 40 years, Congress has enacted 48 legislative measures addressing the statutory debt limit.
Typically, such legislation has either (1) increased the debt limit, or (2) suspended the debt limit for a
specified period of time. During this period, debt limit legislation has been enacted as stand-alone
legislation (often referred to as a “clean” debt limit bill) about 40% of the time, while debt limit
legislation has been enacted as part of a larger legislative package about 60% of the time.
Legislation to raise the public debt limit falls under the jurisdiction of the House Ways and Means
Committee (House Rule X, clause (t)), and the Senate Finance Committee (Senate Rule 25, paragraph
(i)). Either chamber may originate debt limit legislation.
While Congress has used certain expedited procedures in the past to consider debt limit legislation (see
below), there are currently no expedited procedures available to Congress to use in relation to the debt
limit. In general, then, Congress may consider debt limit legislation in the 118th Congress under regular
legislative procedures. In the House, this generally means consideration of debt limit legislation using (1)
the suspension of the rules procedure, which requires support of two-thirds of Members voting; (2) a
special rule reported by the House Rules Committee, which may set the terms for consideration and
requires support of a simple majority of Members voting; or (3) unanimous consent, which requires that
no Members object. Under regular Senate procedures, a debt limit measure would be subject to extended
debate and amendment unless cloture was agreed to (which requires the support of three-fifths of all
Senators) or unless, by unanimous consent, the Senate agreed to end debate and move to a vote on the
measure.
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In the past, Congress has sometimes used expedited procedures for consideration of legislation increasing
the debt limit. For example, if the House and Senate agree to a concurrent resolution on the budget, they
may employ the budget reconciliation process to consider debt limit legislation (which requires the
support of a simple majority of Representatives or Senators in their respective chambers). Because the
House and Senate have not adopted a budget resolution triggering the budget reconciliation process, this
procedure is not currently available to the 118th Congress.
Also in the past, the House allowed for the automatic engrossment of a measure increasing the debt limit
upon final adoption of a budget resolution (commonly referred to as the Gephardt rule after its author
former Representative Richard Gephardt). This, however, is no longer included in House rules and is
therefore not available to the 118th Congress.
In the 117th Congress, legislation was enacted providing that debt limit legislation could, for a finite
period of time, be considered under expedited parliamentary procedures (Section 8 of P.L. 117-71). That
provision expired January 15, 2022, and is therefore unavailable to the 118th Congress. Congress could
again provide expedited procedures. Such a statutory rule, however, would have to be enacted using the
regular legislative processes of the House and Senate.

Author Information

James V. Saturno
Megan S. Lynch
Specialist on Congress and the Legislative Process
Specialist on Congress and the Legislative Process

Disclaimer
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