WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman David Schweikert introduced the Debt Explanation Before Taxwriters (DEBT) Act, legislation that 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. 

On January 21, 2025, the United States reached its debt ceiling of $36.1 trillion, prompting the Treasury Department to implement temporary “extraordinary measures” to prevent default, according to Reuters. If Congress does not act to raise or suspend the debt limit before these measures are exhausted, the U.S. risks defaulting on its obligations, which could lead to severe economic consequences. 

If Congress were to ignore the law and just extend spending policies that exist today, in functionally nine budget years, 9.2 percent of the entire economy will be debt. This would result in borrowing about 7 percent of the entire economy this year.

If the United States were to reach a 5 percent interest rate on U.S. sovereign debt, the current $13 trillion – $14 trillion debt expectation with interest rates over the next 10 years will skyrocket to $22.7 trillion. That’s almost $9 trillion additional from interest rates as of December 2024, to estimated interest rates in spring 2025.

“The Secretary of Treasury has the extraordinary responsibility of preventing the U.S. from defaulting on its more than $36 trillion national debt. Runaway spending and the preference of short-term bonds policies of the last four years have put the country in a precarious predicament when it comes to restoring the long-term fiscal health of our country. I don’t just want to be a part of the debt conversation; I want to influence it,” said Congressman Schweikert. “The scale of the fiscal obligations requires Congress and the Executive branch to be aligned on how to best address the greatest threat to American prosperity—the national debt. I look forward to working alongside the incoming administration to ensure the U.S. fulfills its obligations and rein in unsustainable spending.”

Background on the Debt Explanation Before Taxwriters (DEBT) Act:

• 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.

You can read the full bill text here. 

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Congressman David Schweikert is serving his eighth term in the United States Congress. He holds a seat on the Ways and Means Committee and is the current Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee. He is also the Chairman of the bicameral Joint Economic Committee, Chairman of the Valley Fever Task Force, and is the Republican Co-Chair of the Blockchain Caucus, Telehealth Caucus, Singapore Caucus, and the Caucus on Access to Capital and Credit.