In December 2021, Congress raised the nation’s debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion so that the federal government would not default on its financial obligations. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law, ensuring that the U.S. will make good on its fiscal commitments into 2023. However, the contentious lead-up to the bill’s passage left many questioning the effectiveness and necessity of a U.S. debt ceiling. Initially created to help constrain the nation’s borrowing, the U.S. debt ceiling defines the amount of money the U.S. government can borrow to pay its obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits; military and civilian…

On February 15, President Barack Obama signed into law legislation to raise the Federal debt limit. The measure enables the government to borrow money to pay its bills, including Social Security benefits and the salaries of Federal workers. Failure to pass the bill — which passed the House 221 to 201 and the Senate 67 to 31 — could have led to another government shutdown and a first-ever default on the U.S. debt. Congress’s approval of the debt limit bill means that the Treasury Department is free to borrow money through March 15, 2015, and that lawmakers will not have to revisit…

With little time to recover from the eleventh-hour budget agreement that averted a government shutdown, Congress will soon be forced backed to the bargaining table as the Nation comes closer to its statutory debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion – the current legal limit on how much money the United States can borrow.

Congressional Digest covered 10 important domestic issues in 2010, from consumer financial protection to child nutrition. Some of those topics – such as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the DREAM Act immigration bill – are still being hotly debated during the final days of the session. Here’s an update on all these issues as the 111th Conngress winds down.