Congress will need to address the debt limit by November 5th or risk a default on the nation’s debt. The deadline is the first the Obama administration has set for raising the $18.1 trillion debt limit, and comes in somewhat earlier than what most experts had predicted. The federal government reached its borrowing limit in March and has since been deploying “extraordinary measures” to free up room beneath that limit.
That new deadline has major implications for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), likely the next Speaker of the House (elections will take place October 8th to replace current Speaker John Boehner, who is retiring at the end of October). Congress will need to figure out how to increase the nation’s borrowing limit, prevent a government shutdown, and keep money flowing to highway projects – all in a 30 to 60 day period. And all three will fall on a House Republican Conference in flux, with a new speaker, majority leader, and majority whip expected to be elected next week but not take over until November.
The administration has repeatedly said it will not negotiate raising the debt limit, but congressional Republicans in the past have pressed for spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. Prior to the deadline, there had been talk of tying the debt limit to budget talks. But the month-long gap between the debt-limit deadline (November 5th) and expiration of government funding (December 11th) complicates matters.