Janet Yellen did not turn down President Joe Biden bypassing lawmakers and acting on his own to try to avert a first-ever federal fault.
Republicans have been pressing President Joe Biden to strike a deal to provide spending cuts in exchange for lifting the national borrowing limit, but Yellen insisted the onus remains on US lawmakers.
“It simply is unacceptable for Congress to threaten economic calamity for American households and the global financial system as the cost of raising the debt ceiling,” she told ABC talk show “This Week.”
Yellen had warned on Monday that the United States could run out of money to pay its financial obligations as early as June 1.
The ceiling on US public debt is legally fixed and can be raised only by passage of congressional legislation signed into law by the president.
The Republican-led House of Representatives, positioning itself for a showdown with Biden, voted in late April to lift the borrowing limit but only with drastic cuts to rein in what that party sees as excessive spending.
The bill has no chance of being adopted in the Senate, with its Democratic majority, Inside Paper website reported.
Biden has so far refused to negotiate, noting that the debt ceiling has routinely been raised scores of times over the years — including under former Republican president Donald Trump.