The government would pay debt service, seniors and armed service personnel first, according to a news release.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, P-Pa., this morning is offering an amendment that would force the federal government to make paying debt service, Social Security beneficiaries and armed service personnel the priority in the case Congress doesn't raise the debt limit, according to a news release.
"We need to take the possibility of default off the table as we negotiate the spending cuts and reforms that should be tied to any debt limit increase," Toomey said in a release about altering debt limit legislation. "The Full Faith and Credit Act and this amendment will allow us to have that conversation by eliminating the possibility for default in case the debt ceiling is not raised promptly upon reaching it. Delaying an increase in the debt ceiling in order to achieve spending discipline would be disruptive, but worse still would be to simply continue the irresponsible deficit spending that jeopardizes our economic future."
The government reached its debt limit at the end of 2012, but "extraordinary measures" will allow the country to pay its bills until the end of February.
Legislation currently working its way through Congress would push that back until May.
Earlier this year Toomey suggested risking a government shutdown to gain spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit.
"We Republicans need to be willing to tolerate a temporary, partial government shutdown," he said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Later, on CNBC, he backed away from that stance.