Budgetary issues of Donald Trump’s Administration

The borrowing limit of the government has been postponed by December 8 due to the hurricane aid and debt deal approved by President Donald Trump. However, the true deadline is going to be next spring. This 2018 deadline could coincide with Capitol Hill’s discussions on President Trump’s decision to close the program protecting young immigrants without documents who entered the U.S. in their childhood. The deadline change also suggests that the party will have to vote on increasing the debt limit during the election year. Mr. Trump reached an agreement with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer to join aid for sufferers of Hurricane Harvey and Irma with a a three month suspension of the debt limit. Mr. Trump also agreed to include a three month extension of government funding that expires on December 8 (Sinclair, 45). This led to negotiations between Republicans and Democrats resulting in the Spring Debt limit deadline.

The final Bill was introduced and it retained the Treasury official’s authority to use extraordinary measures enabling them to take steps to continue paying the bills into next spring. The final bill however didn’t include a provision Republicans pushed for that allowed the Treasury Department to keep its cash balance as high as $150 billion upon expiry of the debt limit. The Treasury department will instead be able to hold its cash balance at around $70 billion in December due to lack of this provision.

The debt limit’s deadline could be affected by Congress’ decision to provide funding for emergency aid to Texas, Florida and other areas affected by natural disasters. In addition to this, the debt deadline could be affected by GOP’s plans for tax legislation.

The spring deadline creates confluence between debt limit talks could bleed into discussions on how to handle the fate of young undocumented immigrants protected by under the Deferred Action for childhood Arrivals (DACA). This could give democrats some leverage to press for reauthorization of DACA.

Work cited

Sinclair, Barbara. Unorthodox lawmaking: New legislative processes in the US Congress. CQ Press, 2016.