House Democrats are prepared to try to force a floor vote on a clean debt ceiling increase by bringing a handful of GOP lawmakers over to their side on this vote.
Lawmakers in the minority can do this through a congressional mechanism that forces a floor vote on any measure that gets 218 signatures, the majority of the House.
House Republicans and Democrats remain at an impasse over a final agreement in the debt ceiling talks, and Democrats can begin collecting signatures for a discharge petition in an attempt to kill the debt ceiling legislation that House Republicans passed last month.
“I think it is a break-glass option. We’re going to wait until the outcome of the conversations that the Democratic leader has with the White House before we ask our colleagues to do anything,” said Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar of California at the weekly leaders’ press conference.
The congressman added, “People are able to potentially sign it tomorrow. There is not any instruction that we have given our colleagues at this point. We want to see how these conversations go. But we appreciate the work that Mark DeSaulnier did. And Jim McGovern, as well as the Democratic leader and Democratic whip, to ensure that this is an option.”
Mr. McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, introduced a special rule two weeks ago that would let Democrats attach a clean debt ceiling increase to an unrelated bill introduced by Mr. DeSaulnier, California Democrat, in January.
Lawmakers introduced the legislation when the GOP took control of the lower chamber.
Mr. Aguilar noted that Democrats will wait until the outcome of the debt-limit conversations that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York has with the White House before they ask their colleagues to do anything related to the discharge petition.
“I don’t see any way that we kick the can down the road for anything less than two years,” Mr. Aguilar said. “That doesn’t make any sense to me. We’ve been down this road before, and there’s no sense in having anything tied to spring or early ’24 days.”
Ultimately, Democrats will need Republicans to be successful for a discharge petition to come to the floor for a vote.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.