{"id":25048,"date":"2023-01-13T20:45:08","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T20:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/01\/13\/on-friday-the-13th-debt-ceiling-looms-what-fed-retirees-should-know\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T20:53:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:53:01","slug":"on-friday-the-13th-debt-ceiling-looms-what-fed-retirees-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/congress\/2023\/01\/13\/on-friday-the-13th-debt-ceiling-looms-what-fed-retirees-should-know\/","title":{"rendered":"On Friday the 13th, debt ceiling looms. What fed retirees should know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen notified Congress on Friday that the U.S. is projected to reach its debt limit on Thursday and will then resort to \u201cextraordinary measures\u201d to avoid default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter to House and Senate leaders, Yellen said her actions will buy time until Congress can pass legislation that will either raise the nation\u2019s $31.4 trillion borrowing authority or suspend it again for a period of time\u2014 but said it\u2019s \u201ccritical that Congress act in a timely manner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFailure to meet the government\u2019s obligations would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans, and global financial stability,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the past, even threats that the U.S. government might fail to meet its obligations have caused real harms, including the only credit rating downgrade in the history of our nation in 2011,\u201d she said. Yellen was referring to the debt ceiling impasse during Barack Obama\u2019s presidency, when Republicans had also just won a House majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this new Congress, the debt ceiling debate will almost certainly trigger a political showdown between newly empowered GOP lawmakers who now control the House and want to cut spending and President Joe Biden and Democrats, who had enjoyed one-party control of Washington for the past two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House has insisted that it won\u2019t allow the nation\u2019s credit to be held captive to the demands of GOP lawmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have seen both Republicans and Democrats come together to deal with this issue,\u201d White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday. \u201cIt is one of the basic items that Congress has to deal with and it should be done without conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Republican leaders liken the debt ceiling to a credit card limit and have said they would only raise the statutory ceiling if doing so also secures a spending overhaul. In an interview this week on Fox News Channel, new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy stopped short of saying House Republicans would go so far as to refuse to pass the annual spending bills needed to fund the government, as happened more than a decade ago during an earlier debt ceiling showdown in Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to look at every single dollar spent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But any effort to compromise with House Republicans could force Biden to bend on his own priorities, whether that\u2019s money for the IRS to ensure that wealthier Americans pay what they owe or domestic programs for children and the poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yellen said that while Treasury can\u2019t estimate how long the extraordinary measures will allow the U.S. to continue to pay the government\u2019s obligations, \u201cit is unlikely that cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted before early June.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told reporters Friday that \u201cthis is not the time for panic, but it\u2019s certainly a time for policymakers to begin negotiations in earnest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost policymakers agree that we have a major fiscal challenge as a country, our debt is unsustainable,\u201d he said, and \u201cthere\u2019s no reason why we couldn\u2019t agree on measures to improve our fiscal outcome, and also ensure that we are paying all of our bills in full and on time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Treasury first used extraordinary measures in 1985 and has used them at least 16 times since, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscal watchdog. But the extraordinary measures only work for so long, and would probably run out \u2014 and put the U.S. at risk of default.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those measures include divesting some payments, such as contributions to federal employees\u2019 retirement plans, in order to provide some headroom to make other payments that are deemed essential, including those for Social Security and debt instrument<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past forecasts suggest a default could instantly bury the country in a deep recession, right at a moment of slowing global growth as the U.S. and much of the world face high inflation because of the pandemic and Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. The financial markets could crash and several million workers could be laid off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aftershocks could be felt for years. Moody\u2019s Analytics called this risk \u201ccataclysmic\u201d in a 2021 forecast before the previous debt ceiling increase, suggesting that the resulting chaos would be due to government dysfunction, rather than the underlying condition of the U.S. economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What federal employees should understand about debt and retirement savings<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund is invested<\/a> in special-issue Treasury securities, which count against the debt limit. The same is true for the G Fund<\/a> of the Thrift Savings Plan, which is invested in short-term Treasury securities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1980s, Treasury was given the power to pause reinvestment of all or some of the G Fund if doing so meant pushing the debt past the ceiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the potential crisis passes, the Treasury is required to make the funds \u201cwhole,\u201d meaning lost interest will be restored on the next regularly scheduled interest payment date on the held securities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe good news is that it\u2019s just an accounting gimmick; the tactic does not affect the payment of annuities, health benefits, or loans or withdrawals from the TSP,\u201d according to the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association<\/a> website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benefits for retired and disabled federal employees would not be affected by these measures and would continue to be paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TSP previously assured the public that \u201cG Fund investors remain fully protected<\/a> and G Fund earnings are fully guaranteed by the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis statutory guarantee has effectively protected G Fund investors many times over the past 25 years,\u201d it said in a May 2017 notice<\/a>. \u201cG Fund account balances will continue to accrue earnings and will be updated each business day, and loans and withdrawals will be unaffected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s Note: Federal Times reporter Molly Weisner contributed reporting to this Associated Press story.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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