WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday extended a deadline to raise the federal debt ceiling, saying the government would default if Congress did not increase the country’s dollar debt 92.4 trillion debt ceiling until June 5th.
Yellen had previously said a default could happen as early as June 1.
The delay buys more time for the White House and congressional negotiators to reach an agreement to raise the legal cap on the nation’s borrowing capacity. $1 billion in planned payments in the first two days of June, including veterans, Social Security and Medicare recipients.
“During the week of June 5, Treasury plans to make an estimated 36 billion in payments and transfers,” including approximately $31 quarterly adjustments to Social Security and Medicare trust funds, Yellen wrote.
“As a result, our projected resources will not be sufficient to meet all these obligations,” she said.
Yellen also said the department adopted an unconventional cash management measure on Thursday, swapping about $2 billion in Treasury bonds between the Public Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Public Service Retirement and Disability Fund . Commonwealth Finance Bank avoids a potential default date. She said the measure was last used on
