WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Raising the amount of money the US government can borrow is only one of many funding crises that the US Congress will have to resolve in the immediate weeks and months ahead, US Democratic Senators told the press.
“I’m concerned about a number of crises that are looming… that the Republicans have set themselves up for in the next weeks and months that need to be resolved,” US Democratic Senator Patty Murray told Sputnik on Wednesday.
Murray added that US Republicans “need to step up and tell us [Democrats] how it’s going to be resolved.”
Murray, a member of the US Senate Budget and Appropriations Committees, referred to a number of major funding challenges facing the United States, including passing the 2016 federal budget, self-imposed budget limits known as sequestration, financing Medicare and Medicaid and extending funding for the US transportation system.
US Senator Ron Wyden, a ranking Democrat on Senate Finance Committee, told the press on Wednesday that avoiding a default over the coming weeks “will be another test of the Senate’s ability to tackle big challenges in a bipartisan way.”
While his immediate concern is passing the 2016 budget, Wyden noted that the debt ceiling was “the next big mountain.”
The US debt ceiling limits the amount of money the US government can borrow. The limit will be reached in mid-March, according to the US Treasury Department.
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew sent a letter to the US Congress last week requesting that the debt ceiling is raised before it reaches its statutory limit on March 15, or the Treasury will be forced to use “extraordinary measures” to continue financing the US government on a temporary basis.
US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CBS News over the weekend that he is confident the US Treasury can continue operations beyond March 15, and stated that the Republican majority would not allow the US to default on its national debt.
