House approves debt ceiling deal. Here’s how your representative voted.
A bipartisan coalition in the U.S. House passed a bill in a 314-117 vote Wednesday evening to raise the limit of how much money the federal government can borrow to pay its bills for the next two years. The legislation must clear the Senate and become law before Monday — the day the government would default on its debt without an extended borrowing cap.
Before the vote, President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made the case for the deal they had negotiated to their respective parties. The legislation accomplishes much for both Biden and McCarthy.
Biden can point to a deal that, at least temporarily, frees him from the headache of the debt ceiling, while staving off Republican demands for steep cuts to domestic spending. McCarthy gets a deal that curtails federal spending, and increases some work requirements on federal aid programs, such as food stamps.
Some of the more liberal and conservative members, however, withheld support, citing concerns with the compromises party leaders made in the deal. In all, 46 Democrats and 71 Republicans opposed the bill.
The Washington Post approximated each member’s ideological score above using a measure called DW-NOMINATE, which estimates each lawmaker’s ideology based on their voting record.
Marianna Sotomayor and Jeff Stein contributed to this report.