Federal bank regulators have not yet created these rules and a Congressional committee held a hearing on July 27 on the slow pace of regulators’ implementation of this part of the law. Fierce debate broke out at the hearing about whether it was appropriate for the ratings agencies — companies regulated by the federal government — to be rating United States debt at all.

The pushback against S.& P. echoes the complaints of other governments that have had their debt downgraded and responded with cries of unfairness.

Much of the enmity dates to the financial crisis. All three ratings agencies failed to see the credit crisis coming, and for years they bestowed AAA ratings on bundles of mortgage bonds, even though many of the loans inside those securities were highly questionable. Scores of investors purchased the securities based on the positive ratings; when the mortgages inside those deals went south, investors lost billions of dollars, kicking off the panic that drove the financial crisis.

The ratings agencies, which profited richly during the mortgage boom by rating those deals, have been identified along with banks and mortgage lenders as parties that contributed to the country economic collapse. Despite all that, the agencies still retain lots of weight in the financial markets, and investors have been following their views carefully on sovereign debt in places like Greece, Japan, Italy and, now, the United States.

Moody’s and Fitch have not downgraded the United States, though their analysts said in interviews that a downgrade remains a possibility. Analysts from Fitch Ratings were in their offices over the weekend, churning through financial data. The company has said it may take all month to decide. “Our rating is triple A until the day it changes,” said David Riley, the head of global government debt at Fitch Ratings from his office in London. “That being said, we haven’t formally reaffirmed the rating.”

Moody’s reaffirmed the country’s AAA, though it did put the country on negative outlook on Tuesday. The company’s sovereign analyst said Saturday the company is not as concerned about political gridlock.

“Despite the contentious political environment and the difficulties in coming to an agreement — even if it’s not the ideal one — they still reached an agreement which we think is a turning point in fiscal policy,” said Steven Hess, the lead analyst on U.S. government debt at Moody’s. “It is not enough, but we thought a downgrade would be premature given that they have come up with a plan for deficit reduction.”