White House 'confident' Biden will sign debt bill
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The White House expressed confidence that the bill would be signed before the deadline of June 5.
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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 7, 2022 (AP)
According to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House is confident US President Joe Biden will sign the debt ceiling bill before the deadline of June 5.
During a press conference, Jean-Pierre stated that "We are not nervous. We feel confident that [the bill] could be signed as soon as tomorrow, before June 5."
The US House of Representatives passed a bill suspending the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling on Thursday with broad bipartisan support after Democrats and Republicans joined efforts to pass the bill, narrowly dodging a catastrophic default in the US.
The bill passed the House 314-117, which means the legislation has until Monday to be enacted by the Senate and signed at the Oval Office by Joe Biden, otherwise, the United States will be in trouble, as that is when the federal government is expected to run out of money.
In the wake of the bill passing the House, US President Joe Biden said the deal was "good news for the American people and the American economy," calling on the Senate to pass it at the earliest chance possible so that he could sign it into law.
This comes after a long period of uncertainty regarding the future of the country's debt situation after deliberations on raising the debt ceiling were postponed countless times due to diverging points of view.
Biden said Friday that the country was on the verge of resolving the debt ceiling issue that has been stocking concerns about the US defaulting on its debt, assuring the public regarding the then-looming crisis.
Moreover, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the country would be defaulting on its debt on June 5 unless a deal is reached before then, saying the US had very few days before running out of money.
