Article: Rubin: U.S. Would Divert Payment to Avoid Default; Retirement Fund to Get IOU for Interest Money Under Plan

Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin said yesterday he will divert a $14.5 billion interest payment due a federal retirement fund to keep the Treasury from defaulting at the end of this month should Congress refuse to increase the debt limit.

Use of the payment, owed to the $360 billion-plus Civil Service Retirement Fund, would keep the Treasury below the current $4.9 trillion ceiling on federal borrowing authority "until the end of January and possibly into the first week of February," Rubin said at a hearing of the House Banking Committee.

Ordinarily, the treasury secretary must invest the entire year- end interest payment to the retirement fund in government securities, thus reducing by the ...

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