WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, announced today that he plans to introduce legislation modeled on the Gephardt Rule that would re-establish a logical tie between the vote cast on the concurrent budget resolution and the vote cast to pay for the spending authorized by that budget resolution. 

The Gephardt Rule, devised by former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt, was used in the U.S. House of Representatives to raise the debt ceiling following passage of a budget resolution until the rule was suspended by the House Majority Party.

“Over the past few years, Congress has come perilously close to defaulting on our country’s debt by waiting until the eleventh hour to raise the debt ceiling. This is fiscally reckless. And frankly, it doesn’t make any sense to wage a political battle over whether or not to pay our bills, especially when we’ve already approved the spending in a budget resolution,” Senator King said. “Congress must properly define the debt ceiling vote as a simple up or down vote rather than a protracted debate over U.S. fiscal issues. It’s time to end the partisan brinksmanship and political stand-offs that have too often threatened the economic health and wellbeing of our country.”

During a Senate Budget Committee hearing today with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, King announced his intention to introduce a bill that would amend the Standing Rules of the Senate to establish that upon congressional adoption of the concurrent budget resolution, a Senate Joint Resolution changing the public debt limit to the level specified in the budget resolution would be automatically deemed as passed by the Senate and sent to the House.  Secretary Lew praised the idea and committed to working with Senator King to draft the legislation.

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