Joe Biden urges US Congress to pass the Bipartisan Budget Agreement
May 29, 2023
Washington [US], May 29 : US President Joe Biden on Monday said the only way forward for the US is a Bipartisan Budget Agreement and urged the Congress to pass the agreement.
"We've reached a bipartisan budget agreement that we're ready to move to the full Congress and I think it's a really important step forward," Biden said while delivering remarks on the Bipartisan Budget Agreement on Monday.
Biden said: "The Speaker and I made clear from the start that the only way forward was a bipartisan agreement, that agreement now goes to the United States House and to the Senate."
He further said: "I strongly urge both chambers to pass that agreement. Let's keep moving forward on meeting our obligations and building the strongest economy in the history of the world."
The US President said the agreement represents compromise, that no one got everything they want, "but that's the responsibility of governing".
"I believe you'll see for the American people the agreement prevents the worst possible crisis on default for the first time in our nation's history," he said.
He added: "It also protects key priorities and accomplishments and values that Congressional Democrats and I have fought along for long and hard for investing in America's agenda."
The Washington Post recently reported that US President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have reached an "agreement in principle" to raise the debt ceiling and cap federal spending.
The agreement comes as an important step toward preventing a government default that could be nine days away.
According to The Washington Post, the new blueprint lifts the legal maximum that the nation may borrow to pay its bills until 2025. It also essentially freezes domestic spending and institutes new work requirements on some Americans who nutrition assistance from the federal government, according to a person familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to describe the sensitive talks.
Some contours of the emerging deal reflect Republicans' initial demands after party lawmakers assumed control of the House in January and plotted a strategy to leverage the debt ceiling to achieve their policy agenda, ignoring repeated warnings that their brinkmanship could plunge the country into a recession. McCarthy is expected to brief his party members on a conference call at 9:30 pm.
Before Biden and McCarthy unveiled their plan, some Democrats and Republicans had already started to condemn its size and scope, underscoring the difficult task the two leaders faced to muscle legislation through the pitfall-prone, narrowly divided House and Senate with roughly a week to spare.