Congress Passes Bipartisan Agreement to Lift Debt Ceiling Through 2024

Congress has raised, revised, or extended our nation’s borrowing cap 78 times since 1960. The catastrophic effects of failing to do so have been widely discussed over the last couple of months, but earlier this week, the conventional wisdom of “they will figure it out, they always do” held true when Congress voted to raise U.S. borrowing limits through the end of 2024.

Congressional inaction would have lead to a significant decrease in demand for U.S. Treasuries, a further rise interest rates and spurred broad panic in the world’s financial markets.

Both the House and Senate passed the compromise bill negotiated between President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The agreement, which received solid, bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, includes a pullback of some unspent COVID relief funds, two years of statutory spending caps and an additional four years of “spending targets,” but leaves in place President Biden’s signature legislative accomplishments: the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act and the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

ICSC, along with numerous other real estate focused trade associations, has consistently advocated for the passage of a debt limit deal.