Pelosi Urges Debt-Ceiling Vote in Lame-Duck Session to Avoid Risk

  • House speaker cites prospect of GOP majority from January
  • Can’t play with fire with US credit rating at stake, she says

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi 

Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled that Democrats will seek to extend the federal debt ceiling during the lame-duck session of Congress, avoiding a potential fight with Republicans that she said could threaten the US’s credit rating.

Even with party control of the House undecided on Sunday after the Nov. 8 midterm elections, Pelosi cited Republican threats to use the debt-limit extension “to cut” Medicare and Social Security.