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McConnell: No December debt ceiling vote

By SARAH FERRIS and JENNIFER SCHOLTES

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday afternoon that Congress won’t vote again this year to raise the debt ceiling.

Mitch McConnell

“It does not eliminate the extraordinary measures that the Treasury secretary had always had,” McConnell told reporters. “It doesn't mean that we won't address the debt ceiling in the future.”

But the vote “will not be in December,” he explained.

While Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has not officially predicted how much time Congress has until the nation will reach its borrowing limit, some economists have predicted lawmakers might be able to hold out until March before risking default.

After President Donald Trump struck a deal with Democrats last week to temporarily raise the debt ceiling along with stopgap spending and disaster aid, GOP lawmakers began insisting the White House come up with a plan for cutting spending in the next effort to lift the limit.