The U.S. government has until August or September to lift the country’s borrowing limit to avert a default on its $36 trillion-and-counting debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) projections released Wednesday morning.
The nonpartisan forecast sets a deadline for Congress to address the statutory debt limit before the government runs out of money to pay its bills. Congressional Republicans are attempting to raise the debt limit through a filibuster-proof tax and spending package, circumventing Democratic lawmakers from potentially using debt limit negotiations as a point of leverage.
The Department of Treasury has been extending the deadline through so-called extraordinary measures since Jan. 1 and has “no room to borrow under its standard operating procedures,” according to the CBO report.
CBO estimates that if the debt limit remains unchanged, the government’s ability to borrow using established "extraordinary measures" will probably be exhausted in August or September 2025. https://t.co/xqAdGulBoX
— U.S. CBO (@USCBO) March 26, 2025
