The U.S. government could run out of resources to meet the nation’s obligations as soon as Dec. 15, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says, reviving questions about how Congress will resolve a standoff about raising or suspending the federal borrowing limit.
Ms. Yellen provided the new estimate of when the federal government might no longer be able to pay all of its bills in a letter to Congressional leaders. She had previously said that a debt-limit increase passed by Congress in October provided confidence that the federal government would be able to pay its bills at least through Dec. 3.
“To ensure the full faith and credit of the United States, it is critical that Congress raise or suspend the debt limit as soon as possible,” she wrote.
A transfer tied to President Biden’s signing Monday of a $1 trillion infrastructure bill could leave the Treasury short on cash. The law instructs the Treasury to move $118 billion to the Highway Trust Fund, which Ms. Yellen said would happen Dec. 15.
“While I have a high degree of confidence that Treasury will be able to finance the U.S. government through December 15 and complete the Highway Trust Fund investment, there are scenarios in which Treasury would be left with insufficient remaining resources to continue to finance the operations of the U.S. government beyond this date,” she wrote. Read more at the Wall Street Journal.
{Matzav.com}
