Democrats push for clean debt ceiling increase as deadline approaches.

House Democrats have introduced a special rule to force a vote on a clean debt ceiling increase, a long-shot effort that is unlikely to come to fruition but allows Democrats to argue that they are taking action to address the looming crisis. The U.S. government could be as little as a month away from being unable to pay its bills if Congress does not act to raise or suspend the debt limit. Democrats will be able to designate it as a discharge petition and begin collecting signatures as early as May 16, but all 213 Democrats would need to sign the petition, along with five Republicans to get the necessary 218 signatures.