Yellen Updates X-Date, Says US Will Hit The Debt Limit On June 5

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen speaks in Washington, Wednesday, June 14, 2017, to announce the Federal Open Market Committee decision on interest rates following a two-day meeting. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) — FILE - In this Wednesday, June 14, 2017, file photo, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen speaks in Washington, to announce the Federal Open Market Committee decision on interest rates following a two-day meeting. On W... FILE - In this Wednesday, June 14, 2017, file photo, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen speaks in Washington, to announce the Federal Open Market Committee decision on interest rates following a two-day meeting. On Wednesday, July 5, 2017, the Federal Reserve releases minutes from its June meeting, when it raised its key interest rate for the third time in six months. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) MORE LESS

May 26, 2023 4:39 p.m.

Updated May 26, 2023 5:15 p.m.

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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a new letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and other congressional leaders on Friday refining the estimate for the X-date to June 5.

“Based on the most recent available data, we now estimate that Treasury will have insufficient resources to satisfy the government’s obligations if Congress has not raised or suspended the debt limit by June 5,” Yellen wrote in the 2-page letter.

Yellen also emphasized that the Treasury will make “more than $130 billion of scheduled payments in the first two days of June, including payments to veterans and Social Security and Medicare recipients.”

Recent reports suggested that if the federal government couldn’t make payments scheduled for June 1 and June 2, then Americans who rely most on government help to get by — the oldest and the poorest Social Security recipients — would have suffered.

Read the letter here:

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Emine Yücel is a national political reporter for TPM. A native of Istanbul, Turkey, Emine has contributed to PBS’ Washington Week and NewsHour Weekend and NPR’s Investigations Team. She was a part of the Pulitzer Prize finalist NPR investigations reporting team that exposed how local government agencies throughout the U.S. quietly pocketed Social Security benefits intended for children in foster care. She was also the recipient of PBS’ Gwen Ifill Fellowship. Emine double majored in African American studies and Neuroscience at Northwestern University, where she also competed on the varsity fencing team. She later received her master’s degree in Social Justice and Investigative Reporting from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern.

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