US Federal Debt Subject to Statutory Limit (debt ceiling)

by Eduardo Petazze
On February 7, 2014 the period of temporary suspension of the debt limit to be adopted by Congress to new issues of the Treasury Federal Go ernment had ended! The "!#! Congress has de$ided a new suspension of its ability to regulate the debt limit until 1% &ar$h 201%! Temporary Debt Limit Extension Act 'n$reases the debt limit, effe$ti e &ar$h 1(, 201%, to the e)tent that* the fa$e amount of obligations issued under $hapter +1 of su$h title and the fa$e amount of obligations whose prin$ipal and interest are guaranteed by the "nited #tates Go ernment ,e)$ept guaranteed obligations held by the #e$retary of the Treasury- outstanding on &ar$h 1(, 201%, e)$eeds and the fa$e amount of su$h obligations outstanding on the date of the ena$tment of this .$t /)$ludes an obligation under the abo e $lause if the issuan$e of su$h obligation was ne$essary to fund a $ommitment in$urred pursuant to law by the Federal Go ernment that re0uired payment before &ar$h 1(, 201%! 1rohibits the #e$retary of the Treasury from issuing obligations during the period for the purpose of in$reasing the $ash balan$e abo e normal operating balan$es in anti$ipation of the e)piration of su$h period! Statement of Treasury Secretary acob ! Le" CBO cost estimate Secretary Le" Sends Debt Limit Letter To #ongress ($%&%$'()) *emar+s of Secretary acob ! Le" at t,e -ipartisan .olicy #enter ($%/%$'() Secretary Le" Sends Debt Limit Letter to #ongress ((%$$%$'()) As Janaury 31, 2014 the Total .ublic Debt 0utstanding was $17,249,265,796,405.00 T,e #ontinuing Appropriations Act1 $'() suspended the debt ceilin !r"# $ct"ber 17, 2013, thr"u h %eb 7, 2014 &he act als" speci!ied that the a#"unt "! b"rr"win that "ccurred durin that peri"d be added t" the pre'i"us debt li#it "! $16.7 trilli"n. #ontinuing Appropriations Act1 $'()1 as 2ntroduced in t,e Senate on 0ctober (31 $'(/ ()*$+ Statement of Secretary Le" 4 0ct! (31 $'(/ ,ith an e!!ecti'e date -ay 19, 2013 the .tatut"ry /ebt 0i#it was set t" $16,699,421,095,673.60 Also see1 5aiting my turn to go6ern (T,e 7as, e8uilibrium applied to policy decisions)