Official Summaries

Debt Explanation Before Taxwriters Act or the DEBT Act

This bill requires the Secretary of the Treasury to appear before the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee before the federal debt limit is reached or extraordinary measures are taken to prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations.

The term extraordinary measures generally refers to a series of actions that the Department of the Treasury may implement to allow the United States to borrow additional funds without exceeding the debt limit. The measures generally include suspensions or delays of debt sales and suspensions or redemptions of investments in certain government funds.

The bill requires the Secretary of the Treasury to appear before the committees to provide a detailed explanation of (1) the extraordinary measures that Treasury will take and the administrative costs of taking the measures, and (2) any reversal of such measures and any other changes in the funding of federal government obligations.

Current Full Text

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 402 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 402

To amend title 31, United States Code, to require the Secretary of the 
Treasury to appear before Congress before the debt limit is reached or 
          extraordinary measures are taken to prevent default.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 14, 2025

Mr. Schweikert introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title 31, United States Code, to require the Secretary of the 
Treasury to appear before Congress before the debt limit is reached or 
          extraordinary measures are taken to prevent default.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Debt Explanation Before Taxwriters 
Act'' or the ``DEBT Act''.

SEC. 2. SECRETARY OF TREASURY APPEARANCE BEFORE CONGRESS BEFORE 
              REACHING DEBT LIMIT OR EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TAKEN.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter II of chapter 31 of title 31, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
``Sec. 3131. Secretary of Treasury appearance before Congress before 
              reaching debt limit or extraordinary measures taken
    ``(a) In General.--Not more than sixty days and not less than 
twenty-one days prior to any date on which the Secretary of the 
Treasury anticipates either that the public debt will reach the limit 
specified under section 3101, as modified by section 3101A, or that 
extraordinary measures will be taken to prevent the United States from 
defaulting on its obligations, the Secretary shall appear before the 
Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the 
Committee on Finance of the Senate, to submit a detailed explanation 
of--
            ``(1) any extraordinary measures the Secretary will take to 
        fund Federal government obligations prior to such increase and 
        an estimate of the administrative cost of taking such 
        extraordinary measures; and
            ``(2) any reversal of such measures, and any other changes 
        taken in the funding of Federal government obligations, as a 
        result of such increase.
    ``(b) Extraordinary Measures Defined.--For purposes of this 
section, the term `extraordinary measures' means each of the following:
            ``(1) Suspending sales of State and Local Government Series 
        Treasury securities.
            ``(2) Redeeming existing, and suspending new, investments 
        of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the 
        Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund.
            ``(3) Suspending reinvestment of the Government Securities 
        Investment Fund.
            ``(4) Suspending reinvestment of the Exchange Stabilization 
        Fund.
            ``(5) Directing or approving the issuance of debt by the 
        Federal Financing Bank for the purpose of entering into an 
        exchange transaction for debt that is subject to the limit 
        under this section.
            ``(6) Suspending investments in the Government Securities 
        Investment Fund of the Thrift Savings Fund.
            ``(7) Suspending investments in the stabilization fund 
        established under section 5302 of title 31, United States Code.
            ``(8) Suspending new investments in the Civil Service 
        Retirement and Disability Fund or the Postal Service Retiree 
        Health Benefits Fund.
            ``(9) Selling or redeeming securities, obligations, or 
        other invested assets of the Civil Service Retirement and 
        Disability Fund or the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits 
        Fund before maturity.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--The table of analysis for chapter 31 of 
title 31, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item 
relating to section 3130 the following:

``3131. Secretary of Treasury appearance before Congress before 
                            reaching debt limit or extraordinary 
                            measures taken.''.
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