United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the country is likely to cross its borrowing limit by October this year if the lawmakers do not act right away. She said that the United States Congress should not be “waiting until the last minute” to resolve the issue, according to US media reports.

Yellen wrote a letter to the party leaders of the United States Congress on Wednesday highlighting that a precise timeline for how for long the country’s treasury can stretch is unavailable at the monet. However, the letter also included urged the lawmakers to take immediate action.

Treasury Secretary Yellen wrote on Wednesday, “Based on our best and most recent information, the most likely outcome is that cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted during the month of October”, according to reports from Associated Press.

Members of the Republican party said that they would restrict the Democrats by latching on a separate provision to the United States Congress’ emergency bill, which is required to pass before October 1 to avoid a shutdown of the government.

According to reports from Associated Press, Yellen said in a statement that the previous such efforts have “enjoyed bipartisan support.”

Instead, some Republicans have said Democrats should attach a debt limit increase to the $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan that Democrats are hoping to pass without Republican votes, using a process known as “budget reconciliation”, according to reports from Associated Press.

Speaker of the United States House Of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday that members of the Democratic party will not be pushing the debt limit as a reconciliation measure. The 81-year-old said that Democrats had multiple options for increasing the debt ceiling for the United States Treasury, however, she did not shed light on the details.

According to reports from Associated Press, the debt limit is the amount of money Congress allows Treasury to borrow to keep the government running. When the debt limit was suspended for two years in July 2019, the public debt subject to the limit stood at $22 trillion. 

(With AP inputs)