Freshman House GOP’ers Urge Pelosi For Separate Vote On Debt Ceiling

Travis Martinez – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

On Thursday Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.) urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to remove raising of the national debt ceiling language from the Defense spending bill. Lance said he’d like the Speaker to allow for a separate vote on the issue.

Currently, the national debt ceiling stands at $12.104 trillion. On Tuesday U.S. Treasury officials confirmed that the U.S. debt has hit it’s highest level since World War II at $12 trillion.

“The recent news that our nation’s debt has for the first time topped the $12 trillion mark should be of grave concern to every American…I stand here today with my colleagues to call on Speaker Pelosi to allow on the floor of the House of Representatives such a debate and a clean up-or-down vote on raising the debt ceiling,” said Lance.

Lance addressed a letter he sent on November 6 2009 to the Speaker asking for a stand-alone vote on raising the nation’s debt ceiling. 27 other House Republicans have joined with Lance in his efforts, including Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas).

“I will vote against a needed increase in the limit the federal government can borrow unless Congress creates a commission to come up with proposals to bring the deficit and debt under control,” said Lance.

The New Jersey Republican said that he is waiting to hear back from Pelosi.