The House of Representatives and the Senate passed the
legislation this week after Biden and House of Representatives
Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached an agreement following tense
negotiations.
The Treasury Department had warned it would be unable to pay all
its bills on Monday if Congress had failed to act by then.
Biden signed the bill at the White House a day after hailing it
as a bipartisan triumph in his first-ever Oval Office address to
the nation as president.
The bill signing, which was closed to the press, marked a
low-key, symbolic end to a crisis that vexed Washington for
months, forced Biden to cut short an international trip in Asia
and threatened to push the United States to the brink of an
unprecedented economic crisis.
"Thank you to Speaker McCarthy, Leader Jeffries, Leader Schumer,
and Leader McConnell for their partnership," the White House
said in a statement announcing the bill's signing, naming the
Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate.
Officials later released a ten-second clip of Biden silently
signing the document at the White House.
"It was critical to reach an agreement, and it's very good news
for the American people," Biden said on Friday. "No one got
everything they wanted. But the American people got what they
needed."
The Republican-controlled House voted 314 to 117 to approve the
bill, and the Democrat-controlled Senate voted 63 to 36.
Fitch Ratings said on Friday the United States' "AAA" credit
rating would remain on negative watch, despite the agreement
that will allow the government to meet its obligations.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Eric
Beech; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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