Congressional leaders voiced confidence that the Senate will vote today to ratify a U.S. debt-limit compromise that will avert a default even as it defers decisions on the nation's finances to a bipartisan panel and may only modestly reduce deficits while slowing economic growth.

The House voted 269-161 yesterday to approve the measure, which raises the national debt ceiling enough to fund the government until 2013 and threatens automatic spending cuts to enforce a goal of cutting $2.4 trillion over the next decade.

That goal falls short of the long-term deficit savings that President Barack Obama and Republican leaders initially sought. The political obstacles to reaching even the lower target are formidable, though the measure's sanctions improve prospects "a bit," said Peter Orszag, Obama's former budget director.