Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Thursday he's not worried that a financial crisis could be looming due to a fight over the debt ceiling, The Hill reported.
Speaking to reporters in his home state, McConnell added that he was confident the U.S. will never default on its debt.
"No, I would not be concerned about a financial crisis," McConnell said following an event at the University of Louisville to discuss disaster relief funding, The Hill reported.
"In the end, I think the important thing to remember is that America must never default on its debt. It never has, and it never will. We'll end up in some kind of negotiation with the administration over what the circumstances or conditions under which the debt ceiling will be raised."
McConnell, the Senate's longest-serving party leader, said that the push to raise the debt ceiling is "always a rather contentious effort." However, he added that lawmakers will succeed at doing so before the Treasury exhausts its "extraordinary measures" in June.
The Senate GOP leader spoke after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote to congressional leaders to say that the department would now resort to using "extraordinary measures" to ensure the U.S. does not default on its debt payments.
Yellen said that a "debt issuance suspension period" would last through June 5. She warned that the June date was subject to "considerable uncertainty" due to the challenge of forecasting payments and government revenues months into the future.
The U.S. government hit its $31.4 trillion borrowing limit on Thursday.
The White House and top Democrats have said that passing a clean debt ceiling bill is not up for negotiation. But Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has said that any debt ceiling increase must include spending cuts, perhaps in the area of defense spending.
On Tuesday, McCarthy vowed to stand against President Joe Biden's pursuit of raising the debt ceiling without debate, warning against the status quo on government spending.
Congress adopted a comprehensive debt ceiling, the statutory maximum of debt the government can issue, in 1939, intending to limit its growth. However, the measure has not had that effect, as lawmakers have treated the annual budget process separately from the debt ceiling.
Reuters contributed to this story.
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