Washington D.C. – Today, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) voted to address the nation’s debt limit. Doing so protects the full faith and credit of the United States and averts economic catastrophe from the county’s first-ever credit default.

“Members of Congress should never play politics with the full faith and credit of the United States,” said Rep. Sewell. “We have an obligation to pay our bills that have piled up under previous administrations including President Trump's. Addressing the debt limit is the responsible thing to do, and I was proud to join my Democratic colleagues to protect families from catastrophe and pay our bills.”

Notably, raising the debt limit does not authorize future spending.  It is about meeting obligations the government has already made, including to Social Security recipients, veterans and to the millions who have benefited from the bipartisan COVID relief legislation passed in December – which was authored by multiple GOP Senators and voted for by more than 40 Republicans and signed into law by the previous president.  

Protecting the full faith and credit of the United States has long been a bipartisan responsibility of the Congress.  Congress has addressed the debt limit nearly 80 times since 1960: 30 times with a Democrat in the White House and 49 times under a Republican president:

• Democrats helped to raise the debt ceiling three times under the Trump Administration, even while Republicans used reconciliation to add $2 trillion to the debt with their GOP tax giveaway for the rich.
• Republicans supported suspending the debt limit all three times that it needed to be addressed in the last Administration, when the debt rose by $7.8 trillion.