As Democratic leaders refuse to talk, members of both parties in the House are considering invoking a rarely-used “discharge petition” to force a vote on increasing the debt ceiling.
As the United States borrowing limit reached $31.4 trillion, prompting the Treasury Department to take “extraordinary measures” to prevent a short-term default, Democrats and moderate Republicans are discussing the procedure by which a measure is forced out of a committee for a vote on the House floor.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) informed Semafor that he is negotiating with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and that the discharge petition is “one of several possibilities” on the table. Fitzpatrick told CNN that a vote on an unconditional debt limit rise is an “absolute last resort.”
Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), the House Democrats’ second-in-command, has urged his party members to cooperate with Republicans if they move forward with a discharge petition. Clyburn told CBS News, “I feel that what we ought to do as Democrats cooperate with any Republicans there may be who want to do something about this, so if a Republican puts up a discharge petition, I’ll sign it.”
After a measure has been referred to a committee for 30 legislative days, received 218 signatures, spent seven legislative days on the calendar, and then been given the notice to go to a vote by the speaker, the speaker has two days to schedule a time for a vote. If the legislation passes, it goes to the Senate for further deliberation.
Throughout the years, the mechanism has seen the limited application. As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Emanuel Celler (D-NY) started a discharge petition to move the Civil Rights Act of 1964 out of the Rules Committee. While the discharge petition ultimately fell short of the signature requirement, the legislation was eventually considered and approved. Even more recently, in 2015, dozens of Republican House members teamed with Democrats to support a discharge petition to require the lower House to consider saving the Export-Import Bank.
To win over conservative holdouts who had stalled his bid for speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) promised to pursue expenditure cutbacks. McCarthy has pushed for “a way to bring us to a balanced budget and let’s start paying this debt off” after rejecting the concept of raising the debt ceiling without restrictions this week.
Even while McCarthy has expressed interest in talking, Democratic leaders have been resistant to reaching out. We are not going to negotiate over the debt ceiling,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday. “There should be no political brinkmanship with the debt limit,” Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said.