Obama to Seek $1.2 Trillion Increase in Debt Limit Dec. 30
The Obama administration will ask Congress to increase federal borrowing authority by $1.2 trillion as the nation approaches the debt limit set by law, according to a Treasury Department official.
The White House will send the request to Congress on Dec. 30, the day the debt is projected to rise to within $100 billion of the $15.194 trillion limit, the Treasury official told reporters today on condition of anonymity.
Congress will be notified under the terms of a deal to raise the limit worked out on Aug. 2 after a more than two-month standoff between the administration and Republican lawmakers that was followed by a cut in the U.S. debt rating by Standard & Poor’s. The Budget Control Act of 2011 gives Congress 15 days to pass a joint resolution disapproving the increase in the limit. The president can veto such a measure.
“This process was intended to avoid any further political wrangling” and “make it virtually impossible to derail the final $1.2 trillion,” said Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP LLC in Jersey City, New Jersey.
The limit has already been raised twice since the act was approved, by a total of $900 billion. It would rise to $16.394 trillion after the latest increase.