The U.S. Senate has voted 74-26 to pass the $2.4 trillion debt-ceiling bill, according to a report posted online this afternoon by The Wall Street Journal. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation later today.
This ends— for now anyway— the bitterly partisan wrangling over the size and cost of the federal government, which The Journal noted had “threatened to bring Washington to the brink of an unprecedented debt default.”
Congress will next name 12 members to a special committee that will be charged with devising a package of spending cuts -- and possibly tax measures – to narrow the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion over the next ten years.
