The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful business lobby group, said on Sunday it disagreed with ratings agency Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating but hoped it would spur Washington to act.

While we don't agree with S&P's decision to downgrade America's credit rating, its action should be another powerful incentive for lawmakers to do the hard work necessary to get our fiscal house in order, the group's president, Thomas Donohue, said in a statement.

We will never tackle debts and deficits, jumpstart this recovery, reduce uncertainty, and create millions of jobs until we overhaul our tax code and reform runaway entitlement programs that threaten to push us into insolvency.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; editing by Mohammad Zargham)