US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said the United States will likely hit the $31.4 trillion statutory debt limit on January 19, forcing the Treasury to launch extraordinary cash management measures that can likely prevent default until early June.
“Once the limit is reached, Treasury will need to start taking certain extraordinary measures to prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations,” Yellen said on Friday in a letter to new Republican House of Representatives and other congressional leaders.
She urged the legislators to act quickly to raise the debt ceiling to “protect the full faith and credit of the United States”.
“While Treasury is not currently able to provide an estimate of how long extraordinary measures will enable us to continue to pay the government’s obligations, it is unlikely that cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted before early June,” the letter said.
