Yellen says June 1 is ‘hard deadline’ for raising debt ceiling

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday said June 1 remains a “hard deadline” for raising the federal debt limit, with the odds quite low that the government will collect enough revenues to bridge to June 15, when more tax receipts are due.

Yellen, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, said there would be hard choices to make about payments to Americans if Congress failed to raise the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling before Treasury ran out of cash.

“I indicated in my last letter to Congress that we expect to be unable to pay all of our bills in early June and possibly as soon as June 1. And I will continue to update Congress, but I certainly haven’t changed my assessment. So I think that that’s a hard deadline,” she said.

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