US House Speaker Pelosi Vows to Pass Temporary Funding Bill to Keep Government Open

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed on Thursday to overcome political opposition and pass a temporary funding bill to raise the country’s debt limit in order to keep the government running.

"On the floor today, we'll be doing it", Pelosi said, referring to the attempt by ruling Democrats to put the temporary bill to vote. To her rival Republicans, she said: "Stop holding the debt and the economy hostage again. Congress will not throw this kind of unnecessary wrench into the gears of our job growth and thriving economy".

House Democrats approved on Tuesday the temporary legislation to keep the government funded through early December, lift the limit on federal borrowing through the end of 2022 and provide emergency money for Afghan refugees and natural disaster recovery. But their Republican rivals have expressed unwillingness to back the measure in the Senate.

U.S. House Speaker Pelosi holds a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington

© REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst

A bill to raise the US debt limit is needed to avert a government shutdown when funding lapses next week.

A group of six former US Treasury secretaries urged in a letter to Pelosi on Wednesday to not let a politically divided Congress be the reason for the world’s largest economy to default on its fiscal commitments.