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Biden’s meeting with Congress on default put off until next week — newspaper

The meeting was to be attended by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), Lower House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (R-New York), and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)

WASHINGTON, May 12. /TASS/. US President Joe Biden’s meeting with congressional leaders on the debt limit that was scheduled for Friday has been postponed to next week, the Washington Post reported on Thursday citing source in the White House.

The meeting was to be attended by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), Lower House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (R-New York), and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). They were supposed to discuss issues related to raising the national debt ceiling of the country.

According to a source of the Huffington Post online publication, the postponement was a positive development of events due to the fact that specialists from the offices of the leaders of Congress and the White House are conducting fruitful consultations to prevent a default in the country. The sources in the US administration did not name the reasons for the delay. They also did not specify which of the parties made such a proposal.

The US administration previously called on the Congress to raise the ceiling that is now set at $31.4 trillion. Republicans, who are in control of the House of Representatives, are traditionally skeptical about allowing greater debt and are pushing for reducing government spending.

US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen earlier said the agency would need to take "extraordinary measures" to prevent a default after the nation reached its debt ceiling. The official said the measures should be taken before June 1 this year.

US President Joe Biden signed a bill at the end of 2021 to raise the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion to $31.4 trillion, averting a potential default. Yellen said at the time that the bill prevented a shortage of funds for the federal government.