U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law on Saturday legislation that suspends the U.S. government’s debt limit through January 2025 and avoids a potentially disastrous default just days before the government runs out of cash to pay its bills.
His signature came with two days to spare: the Treasury Department had said the government wouldn’t have enough money to pay all of its bills by Monday.
President Joe Biden addresses the nation on the budget deal that averts a U.S. government default, from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, June 2, 2023.
The White House said the signing was done in private and announced it in an emailed statement. In the statement, Biden thanked congressional leaders.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act is the result of weeks of tough negotiations between Democrats and Republicans.
“No one got everything they wanted but the American people got what they needed,” Biden said of the debt ceiling legislation. “We averted an economic crisis and an economic collapse.”
The bill allows the government to continue to borrow more money over the next 19 months to meet its obligations, exceeding the current $31.4 trillion debt limit.
In this image from Senate Television, the final vote of 63-36 shows passage of the bill to raise the debt ceiling, June 1, 2023, in the Senate at the Capitol in Washington.
The Senate voted Thursday night 63-36 in support of the measure. The bill passed the House of Representatives on a 314-117 vote Wednesday night.