PREVIOUSLY, United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made the statement that the nation could run out of cash by the 1st of June if the government does not raise or suspend the debt ceiling.
Now, the latest government announcement says this date has been pushed back.
Janet Yellen made the announcement to set the deadline for raising the federal debt limit Friday.
Instead of the 1st of June, Congress has until the 5th of June to make a decision.
This buys more time for negotiators to hammer out a deal.
In a letter Yellen wrote to Congress dated May 26th, 2023, she mentioned using an extraordinary measure of swapping 2 billion dollars of treasury securities between the civil service retirement and disability fund and the federal financing bank.
The treasury secretary also wrote that the extremely low level of remaining resources demands that she exhaust all available extraordinary measures to avoid being unable to meet all of the government’s commitments.
If Congress fails to increase the debt limit, it would cause severe hardship to American families, harm the United States’ global leadership position, and raise questions about the nation’s ability to defend its national security interests.
It can be noted that on Friday, President Joe Biden also said a deal to resolve the government’s debt ceiling crisis seemed very close.
The deal under consideration would lift the debt ceiling in exchange for capping non-discretionary defense spending, increasing defense spending, among other conditions.
Meanwhile, the debt limit extension could last through 2024, which would mean Congress would not need to address the limit again until after the presidential election.
