"Once the limit is reached, Treasury will need to start taking certain extraordinary measures to prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations," Yellen said in a letter to congressional leaders in which she urged lawmakers to act quickly to raise the debt ceiling.

"While Treasury is not currently able to provide an estimate of how long extraordinary measures will enable us to continue to pay the government's obligations, it is unlikely that cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted before early June," the letter added.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Tim Ahmann)