SHUTDOWN:
- Congress must pass annual spending bills around the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30 to fund much of the U.S. government.
- When disagreements prevent that, which is frequent, lawmakers often pass a temporary bill extending existing spending levels with no changes for days, weeks or months, while they work on a longer-lasting deal.
- When they cannot agree on either a new spending plan or a short-term extension, the government shuts down. That has happened many times since the 1970s, usually for a few days, and can rattle markets.
- Congress will return from its long summer recess on Sept. 5. At the time, it will have only about 12 working days to approve spending measures to keep the government open.
- If spending measures are not passed before Oct. 1, portions of the government will begin to shut down and non-essential employees will go without pay until an agreement is reached.
- There were three shutdowns in the 1990s, the longest lasting 21 days.
The "debt ceiling" is a legislative limit on how much money the federal government can borrow through debt issued by the U.S. Treasury. Once the limit is reached, Congress must raise it or the government cannot continue borrowing money and would default, or be unable to pay its bills.
- default likely could be staved off until mid-October, thanks to "extraordinary measures" the Treasury put in place in March to delay a debt reckoning. Legislation to raise the debt limit will need to be adopted, at the very latest, by early to mid-October.
- If the debt ceiling is not raised, the government would not be able to borrow more money or pay its bills, including payments on its debts, which could hurt the U.S. credit rating.
BUDGET & DEBT CEILING: The two move on separate tracks, but are likely to get tangled together, with Republican opponents of a debt ceiling increase likely demanding federal spending cuts.
- Both the spending and debt ceiling bills can pass the Republican-led House of Representatives by a simple majority vote, but will need 60 votes to pass the Senate, where Republicans hold 52 of 100 seats, meaning they will need some Democratic support.
- border-wall funding should be a priority in any spending legislation. Some of them have already indicated they are willing to shut down the government to get it. Democrats are uniformly opposed to Trump's wall
- The Trump administration said it would back a "clean" raising of the debt ceiling, meaning it would not be tied to other policy measures. Democrats and moderate Republicans also support a clean debt-ceiling increase. But conservative Republicans, especially in the House, often use debt-ceiling legislation to insist on changes to spending, making them opposed to a clean bill.
Quelle:
AUGUST 23, 2017, by Amanda Becker in Washington; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney,
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN1B32HA