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A joint resolution to block President Joe Biden's student loan relief proposal cleared the Senate Thursday, but that's likely the end of legislative efforts to scrap the initiative, Roll Call reported. That's because the White House has said Biden will veto the measure, which cleared the Senate by a vote of 52 to 46. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, along with independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, supported the measure, as did every Republican. The resolution passed the House last week, but neither vote drew enough support to override a veto. Despite the legislative wrangling, the ultimate test for the proposal is whether it survives challenges before the Supreme Court, which heard arguments in February. Justices are expected to issue a ruling before the end of June.

The Senate passed wide-ranging legislation Thursday that suspends the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling while cutting federal spending, backing a bipartisan deal struck by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to avert an unprecedented U.S. default, the Wall Street Journal reported. The 63-36 vote reflected support from both Democrats and Republicans, with backers saying the need to raise the nation’s borrowing limit outweighed concern about provisions related to military and domestic spending and energy policy, among other contentious issues. The measure now goes to the president for his signature with several days to spare before Monday, when the Treasury Department has said that the government will run out of money to pay all of its bills. The Senate vote Thursday came after the House approved the measure late Wednesday. A strong majority of House Democrats and Republicans voted in favor of the bill, despite angry objections from conservatives that the measure didn’t do enough to control spending and protests from liberals about new work requirements. Under an agreement to allow the Senate to fast-track the vote, senators agreed to consider 11 amendments, related to issues including balancing the budget and a provision expediting the approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a natural-gas pipeline. All were rejected, as leaders warned that passage of any of them would require the bill to be sent back to the House, which has already left town, and force a delay in passage.

A divided U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling on Wednesday, with majority support from both Democrats and Republicans to overcome opposition led by hardline conservatives and avoid a catastrophic default, Reuters reported. The Republican-controlled House voted 314-117 to send the legislation to the Senate, which must enact the measure and get it to President Joe Biden's desk before a Monday deadline, when the federal government is expected to run out of money to pay its bills. The legislation suspends — in essence, temporarily removes — the federal government's borrowing limit through Jan. 1, 2025. The timeline allows Biden and Congress to set aside the politically risky issue until after the November 2024 presidential election. It would also cap some government spending over the next two years, speed up the permitting process for certain energy projects, claw back unused COVID-19 funds and expand work requirements for food aid programs to additional recipients.

Lawmakers returning to Washington, D.C., today will face intense pressure from leaders on Capitol Hill and the White House to support the debt-ceiling bill and overcome opposition on both the left and right, the Wall Street Journal reported. For now, President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy appear on track to gain enough bipartisan support to suspend the debt limit, but the measure could still run into procedural obstacles, complicating the race to avoid an unprecedented default. The legislation’s first test comes today, when it goes before the House Rules Committee, which acts as gatekeeper for legislation coming onto the House floor. Already, two conservative Republicans on the committee, Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina, have said they oppose the deal. The committee is made up of nine Republicans and four Democrats. The debt-ceiling agreement would suspend the borrowing limit for two years and curb government spending during that time. It would cut spending on domestic priorities favored by Democrats while boosting military spending by about 3%. It also would extend limits on food assistance to some beneficiaries to prod them to find jobs and would speed up environmental reviews for energy projects.

When asked in a Senate hearing this week who was to blame for the demise of Silicon Valley Bank, the lender’s former chief executive, Greg Becker, had plenty of ideas, blaming regulators, the bank’s board and its own customers for bringing it down. Yesterday, senior officials from two of the bank’s main regulators, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, told members of the same Senate panel that some of the impressions Becker had left lawmakers with were false, the New York Times reported. The contradictory congressional testimony threatened to pose yet another problem for Becker, who is facing an investigation by federal criminal prosecutors into his handling of the failed California lender as well as a shareholder lawsuit accusing him and another senior leader of misleading investors about the bank’s health in the lead-up to its failure. James N. Kramer, a lawyer for Mr. Becker, said Mr. Becker stood by the statements he had made. The regulators’ statements were part of a hearing held by the Senate Banking Committee on how bank oversight should look in the future in light of the failures of three regional banks this spring. It came two days after Mr. Becker appeared alongside former senior leaders of Signature Bank, a New York lender that collapsed just after Silicon Valley Bank did and prompted the federal government to take drastic steps to prevent widespread panic in the banking system.

Shares of pot companies were trading higher on Thursday as the U.S. Senate Banking Committee prepares to discuss the SAFE Banking Act, a crucial legislation that would make it easier for the cannabis industry to access banking services, Reuters reported. If the bill advances through the committee stage, it would be voted by the Senate for the first time. The bill has been passed by the House of Representatives seven times in the past. Industry insiders are cautiously optimistic that the bill, which has bipartisan support, will be signed into law this time.