U.S. House Democrats move to force debt-limit increase as default date looms: New York Times

NEW YORK, May 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. House Democratic leaders who have been quietly planning a strategy to force a debt ceiling increase to avert default began taking steps on Tuesday to deploy their secret weapon, according to The New York Times.

"The only clue to the gambit was in the title of the otherwise obscure hodgepodge of a bill: 'The Breaking the Gridlock Act'," said the report. "But the 45-page legislation, introduced without fanfare in January by a little-known Democrat, Representative Mark DeSaulnier of California, is part of a confidential, previously unreported, strategy Democrats have been plotting for months to quietly smooth the way for action by Congress to avert a devastating federal default if debt ceiling talks remain deadlocked."

With the possibility of a default now projected as soon as June 1, Democrats on Tuesday began taking steps to deploy the secret weapon they have been holding in reserve, said the report.

They started the process of trying to force a debt-limit increase bill to the floor through a so-called discharge petition that could bypass Republican leaders who have refused to raise the ceiling unless President Joe Biden agrees to spending cuts and policy changes, it noted.

An emergency rule Democrats introduced on Tuesday, during a pro forma session held while the House is in recess, would start the clock on a process that would allow them to begin collecting signatures as soon as May 16 on such a petition, which can force action on a bill if a majority of members sign on, said the report.

"The open-ended rule would provide a vehicle to bring Mr. DeSaulnier's bill to the floor and amend it with a Democratic proposal -- which has yet to be written -- to resolve the debt limit crisis," it added.