The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business organization, warned President Joe Biden on Friday that invoking the 14th Amendment to raise the nation's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling and bypassing Congress would be "as economically calamitous" as a default should the ceiling not be raised.
Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, which formally defines U.S. citizenship and provides equal protection under the law, states "the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned." However, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that such a move would be "legally questionable."
"It is the Chamber's view that attempting to invoke so-called 'powers' under the 14th Amendment would be as economically calamitous as a default triggered by a failure to lift the debt limit in a timely manner," wrote Neil Bradley, the Chamber's executive vice president and chief policy officer, in a letter to Biden on Friday.
Bradley cited a letter by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and other Democratic senators urging Biden to use the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling. He wrote that the senators' letter had omitted a foundational clause of Section 4 and replaced it with an ellipsis, therefore disregarding that the public debt’s validity is "authorized by law."
"Debt issued by the federal government must be issued in accordance with law," Bradley wrote. "The relevant law at the moment is the statutory debt limit [31 U.S. Code § 3101]. The 14th Amendment does not provide any authority or power for the Executive to issue debt beyond what has been authorized through the normal process for enacting laws."
Bradley wrote that if the Treasury Department tried to borrow money above the statutory limit to pay its debt, it would ignore the Constitution's separation of powers, and the validity of that debt "would immediately be called into question" and not subject to the guarantee provided under the 14th Amendment "because it would not have been 'authorized by law.'"
"Simply put, there is no alternative to reaching a bipartisan agreement to raise the statutory debt limit," Bradley wrote. "We are grateful for your engagement with Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy [R-Calif.] and urge you to continue your efforts to reach a successful and timely agreement."
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