Mnuchin Warns Congress on Debt Ceiling

As tension continues to mount on Capitol Hill, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned several Congressional leaders on Wednesday that America would face the debt ceiling next week.

"As you know, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 suspended the statutory debt limit through Wednesday, March 15, 2017. Beginning on Thursday, March 16, 2017, the outstanding debt of the United States will be at the statutory limit," Mnuchin wrote. "At that time, Treasury anticipates that it will need to start taking certain extraordinary measures in order to temporarily prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations."

"As I said in my confirmation hearing, honoring the full faith and credit of our outstanding debt is a critical commitment," he continued. "I encourage Congress to raise the debt limit at the first opportunity so that we can proceed with our joint priorities."

The debt ceiling refers to the upper limit of money that the United States can borrow before the nation defaults. Accordingly, Mnuchin's "extraordinary measures" would stop any spending that would count against it: Starting with his suspension of several state and local securities starting on March 15, this could later include actions like "suspending investments in federal employee pension plans and halting sales of U.S. savings bonds," according to Reuters.

But this isn't the first time this has happened. In 2013, many Republicans resisted efforts to raise the debt ceiling and protested against increased spending (particularly with Obamacare), leading to a partial shutdown of the federal government. And in 2015, Congress passed another bill to suspend the debt limit so Washington could fulfill its payment obligations.