News In Brief

Higher debt lid backed; US bill-paying could go on

The House, facing a midnight deadline on raising the federal debt limit, approved a $30 billion increase in the ceiling Thursday, just enough to carry the government for another month. The Senate was expected to act later in the day.

Treasury Secretary Donald Regan warned that without the increase, which passed 211 to 198, social security checks might bounce and that the government might default on securities.