Biden, Yellen Sued By US Government Workers' Union — And It Wants Debt Ceiling Statute To Be Declared Unconstitutional

The National Association of Government Employees Inc., or NAGE, — a union representing 75,000 federal agency and military employees — has reportedly sued President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday and have asked a federal judge to order Yellen to continue borrowing if talks to raise the national debt ceiling fail.

What Happened: NAGE has asked in the lawsuit that the Debt Ceiling Statute be declared unconstitutional as a violation of the separation of powers and obligation to pay America's debts, reported Bloomberg. The union said neither Biden nor Yellen has the power to pick and choose which bills to pay if the U.S. faces default. That's Congress's job, it said.

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Major Wall Street indices closed mixed on Monday as market participants are awaiting the outcome of the meeting between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday, in regard to the debt ceiling crisis. Investors are also watching out for the release of the consumer price inflation data.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY closed 0.027% higher on Monday while the Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 QQQ gained 0.25%.

"While not challenging here in principle the controversial proposition that Congress can limit the indebtedness of the United States, plaintiff asserts that Congress may not do so without at least setting the order and priority of payments once that limit is reached, instead of leaving it to the president to do so," NAGE's lawyers said in a complaint in Boston federal court.

The union is also seeking a court order preventing any layoffs, furloughs or reduction in benefits for federal workers if Congress refuses to raise the limit.

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