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Bloomberg Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the chamber will vote next week on increasing the U.S. debt limit by $1.8 trillion or $1.9 trillion.
Hoyer said the increase will be added to a Defense Department spending measure. Also to be added will be infrastructure spending, a six-month extension of unemployment benefits, and subsidies to help jobless people buy health insurance through their former employer, said Hoyer of Maryland.
Hoyer didn’t say how much those items would cost. He said lawmakers haven’t decided whether to attach legislation extending the estate tax beyond its Dec. 31 expiration. The defense measure may be the last major bill approved this year by the House.
The debt limit increase, raising the legal cap on government borrowing to about $14 trillion, would be the fourth in 18 months. A $1.8 trillion boost would probably be enough to prevent lawmakers from having to raise the limit again before next year’s midterm elections.
Such an increase would be more than twice the size of each of the past three debt limit increases, each of which lifted the cap by $800 billion or less.
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