On Saturday, June 3, 2023, President Joe Biden signed a bill to extend the debt ceiling. The bipartisan bill veers the nation away from economic catastrophe and suspends the public debt limit until 2025.
“If we had failed to reach an agreement on the budget, there were extreme voices threatening to take America, for the first time in our 247-year history, into default on our national debt,” the President said on Friday, June 2.
“Nothing, nothing would have been more irresponsible. Nothing would have been more catastrophic.”
Before hitting the President’s desk over the weekend, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 314 to 117. One day later, it sailed through the U.S. Senate by a vote of 63-36.
Among other things, the bill draws back $28 billion in unspent COVID-19 relief funds and $1.4 billion in IRS funding. The deal also revokes the pause that was put on student debt repayment plans. As of September 1, 2023, loan borrowers will be asked to resume repaying their debt.
“It really seems that could punish young folks,” U.S. Representative Ro Khanna said.
“And it would be in my view politically disastrous to force millions of young folks to start paying their student loans.”
