The United States could run out of cash to continue paying its bills by mid-July if Congress does not take action to raise or suspend the nation’s debt limit, according to an analysis Monday by the Bipartisan Policy Center.

That deadline, known as the “X-date” — the moment when the United States is unable to meet its financial obligations and might default on its debt — is a fiscal milestone that’s among the most closely watched in Washington and on Wall Street.

The date relies on estimates of how much wiggle room the Treasury has to use accounting maneuvers — known as “extraordinary measures” — to keep paying the government’s bills by shifting money around. The Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank, provided estimates suggesting that the X-date could come as late as the beginning of October.

Efforts to address the debt limit will likely consume Congress and the Trump administration later this year as Republicans race to enact trillions of dollars of tax cuts.

The debt limit is a cap on the total amount of money that the United States is authorized to borrow to fund the government and meet its financial obligations.

Because the federal government runs budget deficits — meaning it spends more than it brings in through taxes and other revenue — it must borrow huge sums of money to pay its bills. Those obligations include funding for social safety net programs, salaries for members of the armed forces and paying investors who have bought U.S. government debt in exchange for interest payments.

After a protracted fight, lawmakers agreed in June 2023 to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt limit until Jan. 1, 2025.

The national debt is now approaching $37 trillion. Republicans have been cutting federal jobs at government agencies and expressed a commitment to curbing wasteful spending, but lawmakers have showed little appetite for cutting social safety net programs, which are the biggest drivers of the growing debt.

“Policymakers must commit to responsible budgeting, which starts with avoiding debt limit brinkmanship and its impacts on our economy,” Margaret Spellings, president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, said in a statement.

President Donald Trump last year urged lawmakers to lift the borrowing cap or abolish it entirely.

House Republicans unveiled a budget outline last month that would raise the debt limit by $4 trillion and approve more than $4 trillion in tax cuts.

$2.1B judgment for Roundup damages

A jury in Georgia has ordered Monsanto parent Bayer to pay nearly $2.1 billion in damages to a man who says the company’s Roundup weed killer caused his cancer, according to attorneys representing the plaintiff. The verdict marks the latest in a long-running series of court battles Monsanto has faced over its Roundup herbicide. The agrochemical giant says it will appeal the verdict, reached in a Georgia courtroom late Friday, in efforts to overturn the decision. The penalties awarded include $65 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages, law firms Arnold & Itkin LLP and Kline & Specter PC said in a statement.

Plaintiff John Barnes filed his lawsuit against Monsanto in 2021, seeking damages related to his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

23andMe in Chapter 11; CEO resigns

23andMe has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and its co-founder and CEO has resigned as the struggling genetic testing company continues its push to cut costs.

San Francisco-based 23andMe announced on Sunday that it will look to sell “substantially all of its assets” through a court-approved reorganization plan.

Anne Wojcicki, who co-founded 23andMe nearly two decades ago, is also stepping down as CEO effective immediately, the company said — but will remain on the 23andMe board.

Her resignation comes just weeks after a board committee rejected a nonbinding acquisition proposal from Wojcicki, who has been trying to take the company private.

— From news services