Lost amid the political chaos swirling around the Trump administration is the failure of Congress to authorize an increase in the nation's ability to borrow.

As partisan fighting over the administration's links to Russia escalates, lawmakers have yet to craft legislation that lifts the debt ceiling following the March expiration of a 2015 pact to suspend the threshold. Since then the Treasury Department has used what it calls " extraordinary measures," such as deferring payments to federal retirement accounts, to avoid breaching the cap. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said Congress will raise the limit, yet he hasn't indicated when.

Just look past the noise. That's the advice of Wall Street's main credit-rating companies, who said they're confident an agreement will be reached before the measures taken by Treasury begin to hamper the government in the second half of the year.

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to Treasury & Risk, part of your ALM digital membership.

Your access to unlimited Treasury & Risk content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Thought leadership on regulatory changes, economic trends, corporate success stories, and tactical solutions for treasurers, CFOs, risk managers, controllers, and other finance professionals
  • Informative weekly newsletter featuring news, analysis, real-world case studies, and other critical content
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.