Inaction on Debt Ceiling Halts T-Bill Sale for 2nd Week
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WASHINGTON — For a second straight week, the government today postponed the scheduled auction of 13- and 26-week Treasury bills because Congress has not raised the debt ceiling.
The Treasury Department said it had to do so because, under the current ceiling, it lacks the authority to raise the current debt limit.
The government had been allowed to run a $2.3-trillion debt until two weeks ago, when it automatically reverted to $2.111 trillion.
With the government currently $2.285 trillion in debt, Treasury could not incur any more debt by holding today’s auction.
It usually sells the T-bills to pay off other bills that come due, but last week it had to take more than $13 billion out of its cash account to pay off maturing bills. It will have to do so again Thursday.
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