"The single greatest threat to the progress the American economy has made since the pandemic is Congress's failure to take action to meet the United States’s obligations," Adeyemo said at the National Asian / Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship (National ACE) 2023 Business Summit.
Adeyemo warned that failure to lift the debt limit would lead the country to a recession. It would also hurt small businesses and initiate a wave of company closures, he added.
"Congress must take action to raise the debt limit and do what is needed to protect families and small businesses, as it has done nearly 80 times before. It is the only way to maintain the economic progress we've made," he said.
The US Congressional Budget Office warned last week that the country faced a "significant risk" of defaulting within the first two weeks of June if lawmakers fail to increase the amount of debt the country is legally allowed to take on.