Payment Details After Debt Ceiling May Not Come Before Friday Market Close
Treasury Will Say How U.S. Will Pay Bills If Debt-Ceiling De
Alex Wong/Getty Images
The Treasury Department will provide details about how the U.S. government will handle paying its bills if the debt limit isn’t raised, a Treasury official said today.
The Treasury Department will provide details about how the U.S. government will handle paying its bills if the debt limit isn’t raised, a Treasury official said today. Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Obama administration officials will brief the public no earlier than after financial markets close tomorrow on priorities for paying the nation’s bills if the U.S. debt limit isn’t raised, a Democratic official said.
A Treasury official said in an e-mail earlier today the department would provide more information on how the government would operate in the absence of borrowing authority as the Aug. 2 deadline approaches.
The House plans to vote today on a proposal to raise the limit that confronts unified Democratic opposition in the Senate, setting the stage for a congressional showdown. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has repeatedly said the government will run out of options for paying all of its bills on Aug. 2.
William Daley, the president’s chief of staff, indicated that the Treasury Department has a contingency plan if a deal isn’t reached by the deadline. Daley didn’t provide details.
“We will follow what has been the plan that every other administration, Democrat or Republican, has prepared for if --in the unlikely situation that that would occur,” Daley said in a July 26 interview with Bloomberg Television.
When pressed for details, Daley said, “The Treasury secretary will speak to that at some point as we get closer to the date and lay out exactly what that process would be.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Julianna Goldman in Washington at jgoldman6@bloomberg.net; Vincent Del Giudice at vdelgiudice@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net; Chris Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net
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