只剩几天了美国违约的最后期限现在，参议院正在争分夺秒地通过一项两党债务上限协议，以避免支付国家账单的经济灾难性失败。
辩论于周四上午开始，商会领导人敦促迅速通过财政责任法案，批评者表达了他们对该法案的担忧。
“如果我们想防止违约，时间是参议院没有的奢侈品，”多数党领袖、纽约州民主党人查克·舒默(Chuck Schumer)在发言中说。“离6月5日不到四天了。在这一点上，任何不必要的延误或最后一刻的拖延都是不必要的，甚至是危险的风险。”
随着参议院审议进入周四晚上，舒默正在与立法者合作，这些立法者希望提供修正案，以提供保证，换取限制辩论和投票的时间。
周四晚些时候，舒默宣布投票将很快开始——在对11项不同的修正案进行连续11轮投票后，预计将在几个小时内通过，要么在午夜之前，要么在午夜左右。这些看起来都不会通过，但允许不同的参议员登记他们对债务协议的分歧。
“通过这项法案，我们今晚将避免违约，”舒默说。“美国可以松一口气了。”
事情是这样发生的。
没有典型的参议院拖延的余地
随着剧情的发展，如果该法案在周一之前到达总统乔·拜登的办公桌上，几乎没有任何拖延的余地，美国财政部长珍妮特·耶伦警告说，美国可能会耗尽按时全额支付所有账单的资金。
除了最后期限之外，它还可能有助于参议员为期三天的周末的开始，离开华盛顿是一个历史悠久的加快行动的动力。
领导层助手此前表示，投票最早可能在周四晚上进行，但这需要整个议院的合作。
2023年5月31日，参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默在华盛顿参议院民主党政策午餐会后的新闻发布会上发表讲话。
Mandel Ngan/法新社
舒默:没有变化，“简单明了”
起初，可能会阻碍这一进程的是各种立法者(主要是共和党人，但也有一些民主党人)寻求的冗长辩论或耗时的辩论和投票。
“我们将在这里呆到星期二，直到我得到承诺，我们将纠正其中的一些问题，”参议员。林赛·格雷厄姆上周四，R-S.C .曾一度发出警告。
他和其他国防鹰派人士直言不讳地表达了他们对法案中军费开支水平的失望，但对法案的任何修改都将迫使它被送回众议院批准——这只会让他们更接近默认的最后期限。
舒默周三告诉美国广播公司新闻，“我们将尽一切努力迅速推动该法案。”“我们不能把任何东西送回家里。简单明了。”
“我们必须避免违约，我们必须这样做，”他接着补充道。
少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔。他在自己的会议上也传达了类似的“时间是最重要的”的信息。
麦康奈尔周三表示:“我可以告诉你，我希望发生的是，那些有修正案的人，如果获得选票，将让出时间，以便我们可以在本周四或周五完成，安抚国家，安抚市场。”
参议院通过时间表是如何在周末前设定的
商会领导人在幕后争夺，以确保达成协议，让立法者在周四晚上投票表决修正案并最终通过。
议员和助手们表示，虽然有可能对10到12项修正案进行投票，但最终还是有11项修正案需要投票。
周三，少数党党鞭约翰·图恩(John Thune，R-s-d)告诉ABC新闻，他认为有可能在周五之前完成所有工作。
图恩表示，如果共和党人就大约六项修正案进行投票，即使共和党反对也不会阻止该协议的迅速通过。
尽管一些参议员对国防和其他问题表示担忧，但在底线上似乎已经达成了普遍共识:如果该法案只改变了一个字母，它就必须返回众议院，到那时，它和国家都将面临不确定的命运。
Debt ceiling drama heads down to the wire in Senate
With just days untilthe deadline for the nation to default, the Senate now is racing against the clock to pass a bipartisan debt ceiling agreement and avoid what would be an economically catastrophic failure to pay the country's bills.
Debate began Thursday morning as the chamber's leaders urged swift passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, with critics voicing their concerns with the bill.
"Time is a luxury the Senate does not have if we want to prevent default," Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in remarks from the floor. "June 5 is less than four days away. At this point, any needless delay or any last minute hold-ups would be an unnecessary and even dangerous risk."
As the Senate deliberated into Thursday evening, Schumer was working with lawmakers who wanted to offer amendments to give assurances in exchange for limiting time for debate and votes.
Later Thursday, Schumer announced that voting would soon begin -- with passage expected within hours, either before or around midnight, after 11 successive rounds of voting on 11 different amendments. None of those looked set to pass but allowed various senators to register their differences with the debt agreement.
"By passing this bill we will avoid default tonight," Schumer said. "America can breathe a sigh of relief."
Here's how it happened.
No room for typical Senate delay
As the drama has played out, there has been almost no room for delay if the bill is to get to President Joe Biden's desk by Monday, the day Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the U.S. could run out of money to be able to pay all its bills on time and in full.
In addition to the deadline, it has potentially helped that that's also supposed to be the start of a three-day weekend for senators -- and getting out of Washington is a time-honored motivator for faster action.
Leadership aides previously said a vote could happen as early as Thursday night but that required cooperation from the entire chamber.
Schumer: No changes, 'plain and simple'
Initially threatening to hold up the process was a possible filibuster or time-consuming debate and votes on amendments being sought by various lawmakers, mainly Republicans, but some Democrats too.
"We'll be here till Tuesday until I get commitments that we're going to rectify some of these problems," Sen.Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., warned at one point on Thursday.
He and other defense hawks spoke out on their frustration with the level of military spending in the bill, but any changes to the bill would force it to be sent back to the House for approval -- which would only drive them closer to the default deadline.
"We are going to do everything we can to move the bill quickly," Schumer told ABC News on Wednesday. "We cannot send anything back to the House. Plain and simple."
"We must avoid default, we must," he added then.
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had a similar "time is of the essence" message for his own conference.
"I can tell you what I hope happens -- is that those who have amendments, if given votes, will yield back time so that we can finish this Thursday or Friday and soothe the country and soothe the markets," McConnell said Wednesday.
How Senate passage timeline got set before the weekend
Chamber leaders scrambled behind the scenes to secure an agreement to have lawmakers voting on amendments and final passage by Thursday night.
While it was possible that 10 to 12 amendments could be voted on, lawmakers and aides said, ultimately 11 amendments were set for votes.
On Wednesday, Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., told ABC News that he thought it would be possible to get it all done by Friday.
Thune said that if Republicans got votes on roughly half a dozen amendments, even GOP opposition wouldn't block swift passage of the deal.
Despite concerns from some senators on defense and other issues, there appears to have been general agreement on the bottom line: that if the bill changed by even a single letter, it would have to return to the House and at that point -- both it and the country would face an uncertain fate.
