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"The debt ceiling will be handled over a period
of months," McConnell said during an interview on CBS' "Face the
Nation" broadcast.
On Friday, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew asked Congress to raise
the statutory cap on borrowing "as soon as possible."
The government is expected to exhaust its borrowing authority
around March 15, but it can take emergency steps to continue
paying its bills. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office
estimates such steps will be exhausted sometime in October or
November.
"I made it very clear after the November (2014) election we're
certainly not going to shut down the government or default on
the national debt," McConnell said.
Even so, Congress is emerging from a contentious fight that at
one point brought the Department of Homeland Security within
hours of having to shut down some of its operations, as
Republicans tied the agency's funding to an attempt to block new
immigration policies by President Barack Obama.
Several Republican lawmakers have already predicted the battle
over the debt limit could become even more difficult than the
DHS funding fight.
Small-government Tea Party activists, who make up a vocal part
of Republican ranks, could try to link the debt limit to
legislation that Obama and his fellow Democrats in Congress
might balk at.
In the CBS interview, McConnell said he hoped a debt limit
extension "might carry some other important legislation that we
can agree on in connection with it."
He did not provide specifics during the interview, nor did a
spokesman after the broadcast.
Since 2011, when Republicans gained control of the House of
Representatives, Obama and Congress have tangled over the debt
limit, flirting with a possible default.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
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