Mnuchin says Sept. 29 debt deadline may move 'a couple of days'
WASHINGTON _ Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he remained confident Congress would vote on a debt limit bill before the government runs out of money to pay the nation's bills, but he suggested Congress needs to act sooner than the Sept. 29 date he has previously cited.
"The next big cash day for us is obviously Sept. 15 _ that's when we get corporate taxes, so the projections could move around a little bit," Mnuchin said on CNBC. "We obviously have now the hurricane spending, which is an issue. So that is going to have some impact on our September spending. But, more importantly, we are going to have to go to Congress and get authorization to spend more, because it's absolutely critical that we spend money to help the state."
"I think there could be some impact of a couple of days," he said, when asked how the deadline could change.
Mnuchin didn't give a date, but additional costs to fund hurricane recovery measures and lower-than-expected tax receipts suggest the deadline would come sooner than Sept. 29.
The previous debt ceiling extension expired on March 15. The Treasury Department has since been using so-called extraordinary measures to pay the country's bills. Mnuchin sent a letter to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan in late July saying those extraordinary measures would last until Sept. 29.
_CQ-Roll Call
