House GOP schedules Tuesday vote on ‘clean’ hike to $14.3 trillion debt ceiling

The House will vote Tuesday on a measure to lift the debt ceiling with no corresponding spending cuts. 

Republicans added H.R. 1954 to the suspension calendar over the weekend. The bill would raise the national debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion, in line with the Obama administration’s budget request.

House Republicans are planning to vote against the measure, sponsored by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), in order to show Obama’s budget proposal can’t fly in the House.

The vote could be difficult for Democrats, many of whom have called for a clean hike to the debt ceiling. Polls show voters are opposed to raising the debt ceiling, and votes cast in favor of Tuesday’s vote are sure to be used in 2012 campaign commercials. 

While the White House has called for a clean hike to the debt ceiling, President Obama has acknowledged spending cuts will have to be a part of a deal. Vice President Biden is holding talks with members of both parties to try to reach an agreement before Aug. 2, the date when the Treasury Department has said it will run out of money without increased borrowing authority.

Republicans had anticipated taking up the bill on Wednesday or later, but by moving it to Tuesday, the GOP could start out the week strong after taking some lumps last week over the loss of a New York congressional seat. 

Republicans lost New York’s 26th congressional district, thought to be a relatively safe GOP seat, after a campaign dominated by Democratic criticism of the House GOP budget and its proposed reforms to Medicare.

Other bills up on suspension on Tuesday are:

H.R. 1484, to improve the appeals process of the Department of Veterans Affairs;

H.R. 802, to create a VetStar Award Program recognizing business contributions to veterans’ employment;

S. 1082, to extend programs under the Small Business Act to July 31, 2011, and extending the Small Business Innovation and Research and the Small Business Technology Transfer programs;

S.Con.Res. 16, allowing the Capitol Visitor Center to celebrate the birthday of King Kamehameha, the first king of the Hawaiian islands, and;

H.R. 1194, to renew the authority of the secretary of Health and Human Services to approve demonstration projects that test strategies for delivering welfare benefits to children.

Other than the change to the debt-ceiling vote, the rest of the week looks the same. Starting Wednesday, the House takes up H.Con.Res. 51, to require U.S. troops to leave Libya (Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio), H.R. 2017, to fund the Department of Homeland Security (Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala.), and an unnumbered bill to fund military construction, veterans affairs and related agencies (Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas).

As of Tuesday morning, the text of that last bill had yet to be produced, but it is expected sometime on Tuesday or Wednesday so it can be considered late in the week.