Biden urges Congress to pass bipartisan debt ceiling deal

WASHINGTON

US President Joe Biden urged Congress on Sunday to pass a bipartisan agreement he reached with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to raise the debt ceiling.

“The Speaker and I made clear from the start that the only way forward was a bipartisan agreement," said Biden at the White House, adding the agreement now goes to the House and Senate.

"I strongly urge both chambers to pass that agreement. Let’s keep moving forward on meeting our obligations and building the strongest economy in the history of the world.”

He reiterated that the deal will take the "threat of catastrophic default off the table" and "it protects our hard-earned and historic economic recovery.”

Biden said that since the agreement was a compromise, no party got everything they wanted, but “that’s the responsibility of governing.”

"This is a deal that’s good news for, I believe you’ll see, for the American people," he added.

Biden and McCarthy, a Republican, announced an "agreement in principle" late Saturday to raise the debt limit and avoid a “catastrophic default.”

A vote is expected in the House on Wednesday.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday that the US will run out of money to pay its financial obligations by June 5.


"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," she wrote in a letter to McCarthy.

The debt limit was hit in January, but the Treasury Department has taken steps to ensure that the US continues to pay its bills.

Yellen said the latest effort occurred Thursday, when the agency carried out a $2 billion swap of Treasury securities between the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Federal Financing Bank.