While the health care reform negotiations continue, the Senate returns next week and will consider legislation that will raise the federal debt limit above the $13 trillion ceiling the House approved last year.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has not said how much the bill would raise the limit but it is widely expected that a significant increase above the $925 billion passed in the House is needed to avoid another increase before the November mid-term elections. As part of the Senate agreement to consider the debt limit increase, they will vote on a series of amendments, including: one that would block EPA from using the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions; another on the creation of a bipartisan budget commission to recommend spending cuts to Congress; and another that would end the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).