This time, the Senate has approved suspending the debt ceiling with only a few days left before the federal government was scheduled to run out of money on june 5. President Joe Biden will be able to sign the bill into law this friday to avoid default.

"The United States is a nation that pays its bills and fulfills its obligations, and always will be", said Biden in a statement sent by the White House moments after the final vote. In the note he emphasizes that senators from both parties have voted in favor of protecting economic progress and preventing the first default in U.S. history.

The Senate has approved the same legal text that came out of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, without touching a comma, despite the anger of some senators. Any amendment would have meant that the law would have had to be voted again by the lower House, delaying the process at a time of maximum urgency.

The senators have been rejecting one by one all the amendments in a marathon session until around 23.00 hours in Washington (5.00 Friday morning in Spain) the plenary has voted definitively in favor of the rule. The leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, has said that the approval of the bill means that "the United States can breathe a sigh of relief". "We're avoiding default", he said.

The bill will take effect upon Biden's signature. It suspends the debt limit (set so far at $31.38 trillion) until january 2025, i.e. for the remainder of Biden's presidency, in exchange for cuts in some spending items and other measures. Once signed, the Treasury will have a free hand to launch bill issues to raise money to finance the multi-billion dollar payments of 92 billion dollars (about 85 billion euros) scheduled for next week.

The final vote was 63 votes in favor of the rule and 36 against. The most radical members of both parties reject the bill for opposing reasons.

The cuts are meager, according to the Republican hardliners, and excessive, according to some Democrats. The deal has been forged by Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Kevin McCarthy.

Translated by: A.M