Yellen Warns Congress Treasury May Run Out of Cash Soon as June

  • Treasury chief urges lawmakers to raise or suspend debt limit
  • Yellen has warned that payments default would be devastating

Janet Yellen

Photographer: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told US lawmakers that her department’s ability to use special accounting maneuvers to stay within the federal debt limit could be exhausted as soon as the start of June.

“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,” Yellen said in a letter to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders from both parties. Given that revenue and spending flows are variable, “the actual date that Treasury exhausts extraordinary measures could be a number of weeks later than these estimates,” she wrote.