"We have to take small victories and move the ball in the right direction," said Georgia Republican Rep. Austin Scott in response to GOP critics who say the bill doesn't reduce domestic spending enough.
The bill passed the GOP-led House 314-117 and it now heads to the Democratic-led Senate just days before the June 5 deadline announced by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen for Congress to raise the debt ceiling or risk running out of money.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which congressional leaders and the White House negotiated, would decrease federal debt by $1.5 trillion over a 10-year period. The deficit for fiscal 2023 is projected to be $1.5 trillion. The national debt is approaching $32 trillion.
The idea of a more fiscally responsible government is a guiding principle in the Commitment to America agenda McCarthy set forth late last year ahead of the November election.
More House Democrats, 165, backed the bill than Republicans, 149. In total, 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats broke ranks to oppose the measure.
A group of Republicans from the House Freedom Caucus opposed the bill, in part, because it increases the debt limit by $4 trillion. The original House-passed bill had raised the debt ceiling only by $1.5 trillion.
