WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has directed his advisers to convene a panel of experts to make the risk of debt default “a thing of the past,” the White House announced Thursday.
“As the President has said, now that the latest debt ceiling crisis is behind us, all legal and policy options need to be explored to prevent Congress from once again taking the full faith and credit of the United States hostage,” he said in a statement.
The administration’s Debt Ceiling Task Force will “analyze the economic and financial damages associated with the brinkmanship of the debt ceiling,” draw lessons from other countries’ experiences and offer recommendations for avoiding future debt-ceiling logjams, the White House said.
Earlier this year, Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy struck a deal to raise the US debt ceiling, avoiding a debt default that experts warned would have upended the global economy. Some Republicans had said any legislation raising the country’s credit limit should be passed along with spending cuts, while most Democrats insisted on a “clean” increase in the debt ceiling.
There have been other clashes over the debt ceiling in the past, and some Democrats have order removing the budget cap altogether.
The White House did not say whether his group would back such a proposal in its statement, though it did say the panel would examine “other approaches to avoid a future crisis without congressional action,” which could be misleading some Democrats who implored Biden to raise the debt ceiling by invoking the 14th Amendment to the Constitution during the latest standoff.
The task force will be co-chaired by White House Counsel Stuart Delery and Assistant to the President and Director of the National Economic Council Lael Brainard, the White House said, and will include Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Shalanda Young and Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Jared Bernstein.
The panel will also “consult with experts outside of government in a variety of fields, including law, economics and history,” it added.
The debt ceiling agreement reached by the two parties in May followed months of political turmoil and weeks of frantic negotiations. The final bipartisan deal faced strong criticism from hardline Republicans, who argued that its spending cuts and conservative provisions were too weak.
He also faced opposition from some Democrats, who opposed additional job requirements and non-defense spending cuts.
