Reid, McConnell propose bipartisan Senate bill to end shutdown, extend borrowing

The Washington Post
By Lori Montgomery, 

Paul Kane and Debbi Wilgoren
16 October 2013

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced a bipartisan deal on Wednesday to raise the debt limit through Feb. 7 and end the 16-day-old government shutdown.

The bill must be passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and signed by President Obama, and it is unclear whether all that can happen before the Treasury Department exhausts its borrowing power Thursday.

It avoids any major changes to Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act, a major victory for Democrats and a repudiation to House and Senate Republicans who for weeks tried to use the threat of a shutdown and potential default to force changes in the health-care law.

Passage of the bill would mean that the government can reopen, and hundreds of thousands of federal employees can return to work. It also means that the Treasury Department can continue to borrow money in order to pay the government’s bills.

But the bill’s timeline sets up another potentially bitter showdown over spending cuts and entitlement programs that will unfold in the halls of Congress over the next four months.

“After weeks spent facing off across a partisan divide that often seemed too wide to cross, our country came to the brink of a disaster. But in the end, political adversaries set aside their differences and disagreements,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “What we’ve done is send a message to Americans … and in addition to that, to the citizens of every country in the world, that the United States lives up to its obligations.”

[Read the latest updates here.]

In addition to lifting the $16.7 trillion debt limit, the emerging measure would fund the government through Jan. 15, delaying the next threat of a shutdown until after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. It would set up a conference committee to hammer out broader budget issues, such as whether to replace deep cuts to agency budgets known as the sequester with other savings.

In a small concession, Republicans got additional safeguards to ensure that people who receive subsidies to buy health insurance are in fact eligible.

“Republicans remain determined to repeal this terrible law,” McConnell said in announcing the agreement alongside Reid. “But for today – for today – the relief we hope for is to reopen the government, avoid default and protect the historic cuts we achieved under the Budget Control Act.

“This is far less than many of us had hoped for, frankly. But it’s far better than what some had sought.”

At the White House, press secretary Jay Carney endorsed the Senate compromise: “The president applauds Leader Reid and Minority Leader McConnell for working together to forge a compromise and encourage Congress to act swiftly to end the shutdown and protect the full faith and credit of the United States.”

As part of the agreement, Reid said, Senate and House leaders would appoint representatives to “a budget conference committee that will set our country on a long-term path to fiscal sustainability.”

 

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