House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., will meet with President Joe Biden on May 9 to discuss raising the debt ceiling after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the United States could default on its debts as soon as June 1, CNN reported Tuesday.
According to the report, Biden called the four Congressional leaders, including McCarthy, on Monday requesting a meeting after Yellen notified lawmakers about the looming potential debt default.
Biden and McCarthy have not met since February even as House Republicans passed a bill last week that would raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion but includes spending cuts and add work requirements to welfare programs that Democrats oppose, the report said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the GOP bill "dead on arrival" in the upper chamber.
"After three months of the Biden administration's inaction, the House acted, and there is a bill sitting in the Senate as we speak that would put the risk of default to rest," McCarthy said in the report. "The Senate and the president need to get to work — and soon."
Biden said after the legislation passed that he would be "happy to meet with McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended."
"In my Jan. 13 letter, I noted that it was unlikely that cash and extraordinary measures would be exhausted before early June. After reviewing recent federal tax receipts, our best estimate is that we will be unable to continue to satisfy all of the government's obligations by early June, and potentially as early as June 1, if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit before that time." Yellen said in Monday's letter to Congressional leaders. "Given the current projections, it is imperative that Congress act as soon as possible to increase or suspend the debt limit in a way that provides longer-term certainty that the government will continue to make its payments."
Yellen warned the leaders that delaying the ceiling raise, which has led to government shutdowns in the past, can hurt the already struggling economy.
"We have learned from past debt limit impasses that waiting until the last minute to suspend or increase the debt limit can cause serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers, and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States," Yellen said in the letter.
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