(Archived Content)
This morning the Treasury issued its quarterly refunding statement, reflecting revised projections of the government's borrowing needs for the remainder of the 2002 fiscal year. Under these projections, debt subject to limit is expected to reach the statutory ceiling of $5,950 billion in mid-May and will remain above the current debt ceiling thereafter.
If the statutory debt ceiling has not been raised by mid-May, the Treasury will have to begin to use a number of stopgap devices to manage debt subject to limit which have been previously utilized under established legal authority.
On current projections, this additional limited borrowing capacity would only be adequate to meet the government's needs until the latter half of June, when regularly scheduled payments to the Social Security and other government trust funds will require the Treasury to borrow beyond this additional, limited capacity.
The Treasury will continue to work with Congress to enact the President's request for a permanent $750 billion increase in the debt ceiling. The Treasury will strive to maintain its regular auction calendar while meeting the financing needs of the federal government.