As a "supercommittee" tries to find $1.5 trillion in new deficit cuts this fall, Republicans will be pressing a far more ambitious goal: passing an amendment to the Constitution to require a balanced federal budget.

The budget battle is not over. Many of the most nettlesome questions have been left for a new bipartisan super committee of 12 lawmakers whose task will be to find at least $1.2 trillion more in deficit cuts spread over the next decade.

The Senate has approved an emergency bill to avert a first-ever government default with just hours to spare.

The Senate will vote at noon on Tuesday on a historic measure pairing an increase in the government's borrowing limit with promises of more than $2 trillion of budget cuts over the next decade.

A crisis-conquering deficit-reduction agreement struck by the White House and congressional leaders after months of partisan rancor picked up momentum in the Senate Monday, as a member of the Republican leadership predicted at least 30 GOP votes.

Hours before a crucial vote, Republican leaders pleaded with their fractious rank and file Thursday to support a House plan to stave off an unprecedented government default. The vote would bring President Barack Obama and congressional leaders a step closer to endgame efforts before Tuesday's deadline.

Six days away from a potentially calamitous government default, House Republicans appeared to be coalescing Wednesday around a work-in-progress plan by House Speaker John Boehner to increase the U.S. borrowing limit and chop $1 trillion in federal spending.

Budget analysts said Wednesday that a Senate Democratic plan to reduce the deficit and increase the nation's borrowing authority would save $2.2 trillion over a decade, more than a rival House Republican proposal but less than promised.