Biden signs debt limit bill, avoiding US default

Reuters, Washington :
President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a bill that suspends the US government’s $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, averting what would have been a first-ever default with just two days to spare.
The House of Representatives and the Senate passed the legislation this week after Biden and House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached an agreement following tense negotiations.
The Treasury Department had warned it would be unable to pay all its bills on Monday if Congress had failed to act by then.

Biden signed the bill at the White House a day after hailing it as a bipartisan triumph in his first-ever Oval Office address to the nation as president.
The bill signing, which was closed to the press, marked a low-key, symbolic end to a crisis that vexed Washington for months, forced Biden to cut short an international trip in Asia and threatened to push the United States to the brink of an unprecedented economic crisis.
“Thank you to Speaker McCarthy, Leader Jeffries, Leader Schumer, and Leader McConnell for their partnership,” the White House said in a statement announcing the bill’s signing, naming the Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate.