Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer touted Democrats’ role in the debt ceiling agreement after the Senate passed the bill Thursday night.
“Tonight's vote is a good outcome because Democrats did a very good job taking the worst parts of the Republican plan off the table,” Schumer told reporters.
Schumer celebrated that the US has avoided default as a result of the vote – and the bill now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed.
“May be a little tired, but we did it. So we're very, very happy. Default was the giant sword hanging over America's head, but because of the good work of President Biden, as well as Democrats, in the House and Democrats in the Senate, we are not defaulting,” the New York senator said.
Asked about the inclusion of legislation to expedite the creation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which Sen. Joe Manchin has been pushing, Schumer said that he had promised Manchin he would include it in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and wanted to “stick to his word.”
“The Mountain Valley Pipeline was part of a whole deal that we that we had originally, that I had originally struck with Manchin in the IRA. You take the whole plan, and it does a huge amount of good for the environment. I stick by my word,” he said.