Treasury Cash Pile Hits New Low

The amount of money the U.S. government has to pay its bills plunged to the lowest it’s been since 2017, posing a risk that the administration will run out of funds in early June if the statutory debt limit isn’t raised or suspended before then.

The Treasury’s cash balance fell to just $37.4 billion on Tuesday, according to data published Wednesday. That more than reverses the previous day’s bounceback, which saw it jump to $54.5 billion, and takes the Treasury coffers below the half-decade low of $38.8 billion reached on Friday. The Treasury’s bank account has been under downward pressure recently because of measures being taken to avoid breaching the $31.4 trillion debt cap.

The drop came even as President Joe Biden expressed confidence lawmakers would take a key step toward raising the U.S. debt ceiling ahead of a House vote to advance his budget deal with Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The House has scheduled a floor vote on the budget deal for Wednesday evening in Washington. The agreement, announced over the weekend, includes two-year limits on federal spending as a condition of suspending the debt ceiling until 2025.

However, until the agreement is enacted by Congress and signed into law, the administration must continue to manage its borrowing and cash appropriately. As part of that, the Treasury announced Wednesday that it is planning to sell an unusually short-dated bill Thursday as it seeks to maneuver around the strictures of the debt ceiling.

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