The U.S. Senate has approved a $781 billion in increase in U.S. borrowing levels, averting a possible government default on debt later this month. The Senate voted 52 to 48 to raise the federal debt limit to $8.965 trillion. The move, the fourth time the debt limit has been raised since 2002, now goes to President George W. Bush for signing into law. The House of Representatives approved the debt-limit increase almost a year ago, when it passed a fiscal year 2006 budget blueprint. Treasury Secretary John Snow has been urging Congress for the past two weeks to raise the $8.18 trillion debt limit and to do so without amending the measure.
