WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- An advisory committee of the U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday that the Treasury is only able to fund the government by the end of September before it runs out of cash.
It's of great urgency and importance for Congress to raise the debt limit in a timely manner, the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee said in a letter sent to the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, on Wednesday.
According to the letter, the committee assessed that the Treasury's cash can only fund the government operations through September 29.
The Treasury has begun using bookkeeping maneuvers to continue to finance the government's activities since the federal government's outstanding debt reached its statutory limit on March 15.
Mnuchin has repeatedly urged the Congress to raise the debt limit by the end of September. The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that the federal government would not run out of cash until mid-October.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also said on Tuesday that the nation's debt limit must be raised in September to avoid a federal government debt default.
The debt limit is the maximum amount of debt that the Treasury can issue to the public and to the other federal agencies. The amount of outstanding debt subject to limit has now risen to about 19.9 trillion U.S. dollars.
