Treasury pushes back default deadline to June 5

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday revised her June 1 deadline for lawmakers to reach a debt ceiling deal to avert default, claiming they now have until June 5 to do so.

Yellen had repeatedly warned that lawmakers needed to reach an agreement by June 1 to avert a debt default.

"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 to Congress on Friday, per ABC News.

The House of Representative left Washington on Thursday for its customary Memorial Day recess and is not slated to return until June 5. Both House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden remain optimistic that the U.S. will not default on its debt and that they will reach a deal in time.

Republicans are seeking caps on spending to address the mounting national debt in exchange for raising the debt limit. Details of the prospective deal remain somewhat unclear as of press time.

The U.S. hit its $31.38 trillion spending limit in January of this year, prompting the Treasury to implement "extraordinary measures" to pay the government's bills.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.