WASHINGTON — The House and Senate have each passed legislation that would suspend the federal debt limit through March 15, 2015.
The Senate approved the measure Wednesday afternoon by a vote of 55-43 after the House voted 221-201 for it on Tuesday night. President Obama is expected to sign the measure.
The previous debt limit extension expired on Feb. 7, forcing the Treasury Department to use extraordinary measures to continue to pay the federal government's obligations. But Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told Congress earlier this month that the extraordinary measures would likely be exhausted by Feb. 27.
"We welcome the news that Congress has acted to meet its responsibility to protect the full faith and credit of the United States by extending the nation's debt limit," Lew said in a release on Wednesday. "This week's action combined with the two-year budget agreement and the omnibus spending bill — all of which passed Congress with bipartisan majorities — will provide certainty and stability to businesses and financial markets and should add momentum to the economic growth forecasted in 2014."
One of the extraordinary measures that Treasury took was to temporarily halt the sales of state and local government series securities, or SLGS. Municipal issuers often purchase SLGS for advance refunding escrows to ensure their investment yield will not significantly exceed the yield of their refunding bonds and that they will not violate yield restriction requirements.
