Congress Extends Debt Limit To 2015

In a move that may soothe a battered research community, Congress last week passed a bill extending the federal debt limit. President Barack Obama quickly signed it into law. The law averts until March 2015 the possibility of a federal shutdown because of the government’s inability to pay its bills. This debt limit extension combined with a previous bipartisan agreement that sets a 2015 federal budget cap should bring about a year of much-needed stability for science funding. “Agreeing to increase the debt limit is an encouraging sign that this Congress, weighed down as it is by ideological and political differences, can, in fact, get its job done,” says Mary Woolley, president and CEO of the science advocacy group Research!America. By law, Congress must give the Treasury Department permission to borrow at levels beyond what it collects through taxes. House Republicans had threatened to block the debt limit extension for various reasons, including restoring pension benefits for military retirees, but eventually backed off.