


On Saturday evening, just days before a potential default, sources are claiming that a tentative agreement has been reached between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on the debt ceiling.
“The White House and negotiators for House Republicans have reached an agreement in principle to avert a debt default, two sources familiar with the situation said,” Reuters reports, adding that Biden and McCarthy had a 90 minute phone call on Saturday.
One source reportedly familiar with the negotiations said that an agreement is “close,” but likely not completely finalized.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had warned that the federal government would default on June 5 if an agreement wasn’t reached. “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 stated.
The Treasury Department said it has been enacting “extraordinary measures” since January when the United States hit its statutory limit of roughly $31.4 trillion, and has warned of dire economic consequences if the country is unable to reach a deal to lift the debt ceiling.
The White House and the GOP-led Congress have been engaged in a protracted battle over the details of a debt ceiling agreement. The president and Democrats broadly called for a clean debt ceiling raise even after the House passed a bill that would raise the debt ceiling while cutting discretionary spending and limit spending increases for the next decade.
Ben Zeisloft and Tim Pearce contributed to this report.