WASHINGTON
— Senate leaders announced a last-minute agreement Wednesday to avert a
threatened Treasury default and reopen the government after a partial, 16-day
shutdown. Congress raced to pass the measure by day's end.
The Dow
Jones industrial average soared on the news that the threat of default was
fading, flirting with a 200-point gain in morning trading.
Senate
leaders tout debt deal
"This
is a time for reconciliation," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of
the agreement he had forged with the GOP leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of
Kentucky.
McConnell
said that with the accord, Republicans had sealed a deal to have spending in
one area of the budget decline for two years in a row, adding, "we're not
going back."
One
prominent tea party lawmaker, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, said he would oppose the
plan, but not seek to delay its passage.
That
was a key concession that signaled a strong possibility that both houses could
act by day's end. That, in turn, would allow President Barack Obama to sign the
bill into law ahead of the Thursday deadline that Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew
had set for action to raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit.
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