Full List of House Democrats Who Voted Against Debt Ceiling Deal

US News Reporter

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The debt ceiling deal negotiated by President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy easily passed the House of Representatives on Wednesday, by 314 votes to 117, though there was opposition from within both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Under its terms, the U.S. debt limit will be raised from $31.4 trillion for the next two years, preventing America from defaulting on its debts in early June. It was opposed by both Republicans who wanted spending cuts to go deeper and Democrats who believed they went too far and were angered by expanded work requirements for those on food assistance programs.

In total, 165 Democrats and 149 Republicans voted in favor of the bill while 46 and 71, from each party respectively, opposed it.

The bill will now go before the Senate where it requires 60 votes to pass, and is expected to face further opposition from the right and left flanks of both parties. If passed, the U.S. will avoid the first default on its debt, with experts warning this would have a severe and unpredictable impact on the economy.

A provisional debt agreement was reached between Biden and McCarthy on Saturday, before a finalized version was approved the following day. Under its terms spending will remain "roughly flat" in 2024, with exceptions for defense and veterans funding, and increase by 1 percent in 2025. The deal also rescinds funding for more Internal Revenue Service agents, with spending on coronavirus relief and future COVID vaccinations also slashed.

House Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks to reporters after attending a House Democrat caucus meeting with White House debt negotiators at the U.S. Capitol on May 31, 2023 in Washington, DC. She was one of 46 Democrats who... Anna Moneymaker/GETTY

Democrats opposed to the deal included Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York, a member of the Progressive Caucus, who hadpreviously said: "McCarthy needs to understand that he is not entitled to votes from a party that he does not belong to."

Jamaal Bowman, another New Yorker, voted against the agreement after saying he was "frustrated" with how the Biden administration had handled negotiations.

He said: "We don't negotiate with terrorists globally, why are we going to negotiate with the economic terrorists here that are the Republican Party."

Rep. Steven Horsford from Nevada, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, expressed concerns about the state of negotiations on May 26, when they were still ongoing, telling CNN: "We can't vote for something that goes against our constituents and their interests." However, he did end up voting in favor of the deal on Wednesday.

Speaking to Newsweek, Thomas Gift, an associate professor who heads the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London, suggested more Democrats might have voted for the bill if they thought it would struggle to pass.

"Forty-six House Democrats voted against the bill because that's what ideological purists do," he said. "They elevate their own sense of principles to the exclusion of all others, treat compromise as a four-letter word, and play relentlessly to their bases. That's as much true on the left as it is on the right. Of course, the fact that the bill seemed destined to cross the finish line without their support gave many progressive lawmakers room to vote down the bill.

"If the vote hinged critically on their vote, it's possible some would have been persuaded to flip. Now, they can go home to their gerrymandered districts and say they voted against cutting social programs, cloaked with the reassurance they didn't throw the U.S. over a fiscal cliff."

Newsweek has provided a full list of the 46 House Democrats who voted against the deal below.