Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen contacted multiple prominent American business leaders on Monday to detail the financial risk stemming from the current debt ceiling controversy.

The debt ceiling, a policy established by Congress that prevents the federal government from spending beyond a predetermined national debt limit of $31.4 trillion, surpassed the threshold earlier this year. Yellen warned last week that the nation could face a default as soon as the first day of June unless the debt limit is suspended or increased.

The veteran economist held multiple one-on-one conversations with individual executives about the “dangerous consequences of the current brinkmanship” in recent days, one of two unnamed sources familiar with the matter said in a report from Reuters. The sources declined to name the executives with whom Yellen discussed the phenomenon.

Biden administration officials have repeatedly asserted that Republican lawmakers are risking a worldwide recession by insisting that any amendment to the debt ceiling should be accompanied by meaningful spending cuts or limits upon future expenditures. Yellen said in an interview on Sunday that Republicans are thereby holding a “gun to the head of the American people,” contending that the effort to achieve “agreement on budget priorities” before increasing the debt limit “simply is unacceptable” due to the recession risks.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and President Joe Biden met in early February to discuss possible mechanisms to raise or eliminate the debt limit while reconsidering budget priorities, but the commander-in-chief delayed further meetings for several months. The two officials are scheduled to meet for the second time alongside other lawmakers on Tuesday.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a Monday briefing that Biden would attempt to create separate negotiations processes for budget cuts and the debt ceiling. “Remember, that’s regular order,” she told reporters. “That is the way that we’re supposed to be doing this: having a negotiation on budget, not connecting it to the debt ceiling.”

Members of the House Freedom Caucus, a bloc of conservative Republicans, have said they would consider voting to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for a framework that returns expenditures to fiscal year 2022 levels, raises the debt ceiling only for the next year, and limits annual spending growth to 1% over the next decade. McCarthy unveiled a budget proposal that mirrored the framework and passed the measure through the House two weeks ago. The narrowly Republican majority requires votes from the House Freedom Caucus to pass bills.

Jean-Pierre said last week that “the only practical path to avoid default is for Congress to suspend the debt limit without conditions” because of the “limited time” before the potential default. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-PA) previously told The Daily Wire that the remarks were “like a pyromaniac starting a fire and watching it burn for months suddenly declaring it needs to be put out while simultaneously pouring more gas on it.”

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Forty-three Republican members of the Senate recently endorsed a letter declaring that they would oppose a “clean” debt ceiling bill separate from any spending cuts or other policy concessions. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced that the upper chamber would hold hearings on the bill to “expose the true impact of this reckless legislation on everyday Americans.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took his war against the Chinese Communist Party to a new level this week when he signed three bills into law that severely restrict the CCP’s ability to acquire land in the state of Florida, crack down on the CCP’s data collection of U.S. citizens, and ban CCP influence from the education system.

DeSantis signed three new bills into law on Monday — SB 264, SB 846, and SB 258 — a package the governor’s office called “the strongest legislation in the nation to date to counteract the influence of the United States’ greatest economic, strategic, and security threat — the Chinese Communist Party.”

A Chinese think tank designated DeSantis among the five most aggressive governors in the U.S. against the communist nation back in 2019, several months before the coronavirus pandemic erupted. Since then, DeSantis has continued to take an aggressive approach towards China.

The trio of new laws:

Prevents Chinese entities or affiliates from buying farmland in Florida or land near our military bases and critical infrastructure. Stops sensitive data from being stored on servers that might be owned by entities affiliated with the CCP. Prohibits the Chinese influence that we rooted out of higher education from working its way into [Florida’s] primary and secondary education institutions. Blocks access to dangerous applications, such as TikTok, on government and educational institution servers and devices.

“Florida is taking action to stand against the United States’ greatest geopolitical threat — the Chinese Communist Party,” the 44-year-old governor said in a statement. “I’m proud to sign this legislation to stop the purchase of our farmland and land near our military bases and critical infrastructure by Chinese agents, to stop sensitive digital data from being stored in China, and to stop CCP influence in our education system from grade school to grad school. We are following through on our commitment to crack down on Communist China.”

At a press conference where he signed the bills, DeSantis noted the numerous advantages that China has over the U.S., including how they use their government to create an unfair trading relationship with the U.S.

“Part of the reason we’re in this predicament is because elites in our own country, for a generation, have sought short term profits over long term U.S. interests,” DeSantis said. “They thought people were making money, that was good for some, and they didn’t have a long view of how that would work in terms of America’s industrial base here at home, or America’s security abroad.”

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The governor’s latest actions against China builds off legislation that DeSantis signed into law back in 2021. According to the governor’s office, those laws:

Strengthens foreign financial connection vetting and disclosure requirements for entities seeking tax-payer funded grants or contracts from state agencies or political subdivisions.  Creates heightened scrutiny of research grant applicants, foreign applicants for research positions, and foreign travel or activities of employees of major research institutions.   Requires universities and colleges to disclose foreign donations and grants of $50,000 or more to the State University System Board of Governors or Department of Education. State agencies and political subdivisions are required to report foreign donations and grants of $50,000 or more to the Department of Financial Services.  Prohibits specific agreements between state/public entities and the seven countries of concern (Russia, PRC, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela).  Creates new criminal offenses in Florida for the theft and trafficking of trade secrets. Anyone who willfully and without authorization steals or attempts to steal a trade secret and use it for their own benefit will now face a third-degree felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Individuals attempting to sell stolen trade secrets will face a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison If an individual or entity violates this law on behalf of a foreign government, the penalties are severely enhanced — reclassifying the felony one degree higher and increasing the offense severity ranking.