US debt limit vote set for Wed, Barack Obama likely to sign
A measure to extend the US debt limit for nearly four months moved closer on Tuesday to a vote and the White House said the president would sign the bill if it cleared Congress, easing uncertainty that could have threatened the US economy.
The debt limit "suspension," which would allow the government to borrow money until May 19, is due to come to a vote in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Wednesday without amendments.
House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions of Texas said he believed the measure would achieve "near unanimous support" from the House Republican caucus, which would guarantee its passage.
President Barack Obama "would not stand in the way of the bill becoming law," White House spokesman Jay Carney said earlier at a briefing. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has similarly expressed approval.
The administration and some Democrats made clear on Tuesday they would prefer a longer-term reprieve from having again to seek an expansion of the nation's borrowing capacity. But the White House welcomed movement on the contentious issue, which has financial markets worried about a self-engineered US debt default.
"What happened ... was a very significant development in terms of de-escalating the sense of conflict over this," Carney said.
Even a sermon delivered at a traditional prayer service at Washington's National Cathedral a day after Obama's inauguration cited the clash over the debt limit as a strain on the nation's spirit.
Reverend Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor from Leawood, Kansas, told the attendees, which included Obama, that "to many Americans we
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