In
a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, Mnuchin
said the Treasury would no longer be able to fully invest in two
retirement funds for federal workers.
They are the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and
the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund, according to
the letter. All the funds would be made whole once the debt
limit is increased, Mnuchin said.
The U.S. Treasury is bumping up against the cap on how much
money it can borrow to cover the budget deficit that results
from Washington spending more than it collects in taxes. Only
Congress can raise that limit.
A temporary measure that suspended the debt limit expired on
Dec. 8, although the Treasury has emergency means to continue to
pay all its bills through January, the department has said.
The United States is one of only a few nations that requires the
legislature to approve periodic increases in the legal limit on
how much money the federal government can borrow.
(Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Sandra Maler and
Leslie Adler)
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