Treasury auction signals possible leeway on June 1 debt ceiling deadline

The Treasury Department announced Thursday that auctions for certain short-term Treasury bills will go ahead next week. And some observers have interpreted that as a sign lawmakers may have some additional time beyond the June 1 deadline to finalize a deal to raise the debt limit and avert a catastrophic default.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and lawmakers in Congress have been pressing to get a deal to raise the debt limit by June 1, which has been cited as the earliest possible date at which the Treasury may exhaust the “extraordinary measures” it has been using to pay the government’s bills since the $31.4 trillion debt limit was reached i