U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, leader of the 101-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, voted "no" on the deal to raise the nation's debt limit Wednesday night.
But Jayapal, whose caucus includes nearly half of all Democrats in the U.S. House, wants to be clear on one thing: The deal was all but sure to pass without her vote and if they needed her vote she'd likely have voted "yes."
"They do not need my vote to pass this bill," Jayapal, a Democrat from West Seattle, said Wednesday, ahead of the vote. "It's really important that people understand that this was a negotiation that was done at gunpoint. The American people were held hostages by the Republicans."
The bill passed the House overwhelmingly, 314-117, with strong bipartisan support. Every other member of Washington's 10-person House delegation voted yes.
The debt limit, which the country is expected to hit next week, barring congressional action, caps the amount of debt the United States can incur. But Congress has already authorized spending in excess of the debt limit. Economists warn that failure to make debt payments — to pay the country's bills — could have cataclysmic effects on the global economy, including plunging it into recession.
Republicans, who control the House, have been demanding spending and policy concessions in exchange for voting to raise the debt limit.
The deal struck between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy raises the debt limit in exchange for limiting nondefense discretionary spending for two years, adding work requirements for food stamps for childless adults ages 50-54 and claws back some of the increase in IRS funding that Democrats passed last year.
Jayapal credited Biden for "keeping out the worst things" that Republicans had sought in the bill. But she also said she wished he'd more seriously considered using the 14th Amendment to the Constitution to say that he would not default on the nation's debt and declare the debt limit invalid.
She said she'd had a number of discussions with other House progressives and expected a "significant number" of "no" votes. In particular, Jayapal objected to how the deal cleared roadblocks for a major new natural gas pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia and the imposition of work requirements for food stamps.
"It is fundamentally, essentially preserving tax breaks for the wealthiest and making poor people pay for that," she said.
Republicans hold a slim four-seat majority in the House and the bill required significant support from both parties to pass. It now heads to the Senate.
"For me, it is really important that we have a very strong 'no' vote, that it is clear that this kind of hostage-taking cannot continue," Jayapal said.
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Bellevue, voted "yes" and likened the deal to a fairly routine annual budget bill, albeit one struck with the high-stakes brinkmanship of a looming default.
"The extreme Republicans took us to the brink of default, and Joe Biden managed to lead us back," Smith said in an interview. "Beyond that, for the most part, this is a pretty standard budget deal."
"This is something we would have negotiated, and the only difference is the Republicans chose to take a hostage, a very, very dangerous hostage for the American people."
Smith, unlike Jayapal, said invoking the 14th Amendment would have invited an immediate lawsuit and the nation could have defaulted while the issue played out in the courts. The 14th Amendment says the debt of the United States "shall not be questioned" and experts differ on whether that language could be interpreted as deeming the debt limit unconstitutional.
Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, praised the bill as a "historic step in the right direction" to help cut spending.
"This bill has the potential to put our fiscal house in order, create a smaller government, fight inflation, lower taxes for hardworking Americans, and shift our country back to common sense and conservatism," Newhouse, one of Washington's two congressional Republicans, said.
Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, voted for the deal, but wasn't thrilled about it.
"I'm often in the position of having to either hold my nose and vote 'yes' or hold my nose and vote 'no,' " Kilmer said in a prepared statement. "I also think it's important for America to pay its bills. Failing to address the debt ceiling is like choosing not to make the minimum payment on a credit card — you can make that choice, but it will have disastrous consequences."
He said he was pleased the deal doesn't cut programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Medina, also voted "yes," saying she wouldn't "let perfect be the enemy of good when the stakes are this high."
"Compromise means that no one gets everything they want," DelBene said in a statement. "The worse outcome here is default."
Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, voted for the deal as a "necessary step to prevent catastrophic default."
He noted that the package fully funds veterans benefits and doesn't cut the investments in climate and energy programs passed by Democrats last year.
Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Spokane; Kim Schrier, D-Sammamish; Marilyn Strickland, D-Tacoma; and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Stevenson, all voted "yes."
