I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION 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
JANUARY14, 2025
Mr. S
CHWEIKERTintroduced 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 Sec-
retary 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 Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Debt Explanation Be-4
fore Taxwriters Act’’ or the ‘‘DEBT Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. SECRETARY OF TREASURY APPEARANCE BEFORE 1
CONGRESS BEFORE REACHING DEBT LIMIT 2
OR EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TAKEN. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 31 of 4
title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 5
end the following: 6
‘‘§ 3131. Secretary of Treasury appearance before 7
Congress before reaching debt limit or 8
extraordinary measures taken 9
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not more than sixty days and 10
not less than twenty-one days prior to any date on which 11
the Secretary of the Treasury anticipates either that the 12
public debt will reach the limit specified under section 13
3101, as modified by section 3101A, or that extraordinary 14
measures will be taken to prevent the United States from 15
defaulting on its obligations, the Secretary shall appear 16
before the Committee on Ways and Means of the House 17
of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the 18
Senate, to submit a detailed explanation of— 19
‘‘(1) any extraordinary measures the Secretary 20
will take to fund Federal government obligations 21
prior to such increase and an estimate of the admin-22
istrative cost of taking such extraordinary measures; 23
and 24
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‘‘(2) any reversal of such measures, and any 1
other changes taken in the funding of Federal gov-2
ernment obligations, as a result of such increase. 3
‘‘(b) E
XTRAORDINARY MEASURESDEFINED.—For 4
purposes of this section, the term ‘extraordinary measures’ 5
means each of the following: 6
‘‘(1) Suspending sales of State and Local Gov-7
ernment Series Treasury securities. 8
‘‘(2) Redeeming existing, and suspending new, 9
investments of the Civil Service Retirement and Dis-10
ability Fund and the Postal Service Retiree Health 11
Benefits Fund. 12
‘‘(3) Suspending reinvestment of the Govern-13
ment Securities Investment Fund. 14
‘‘(4) Suspending reinvestment of the Exchange 15
Stabilization Fund. 16
‘‘(5) Directing or approving the issuance of 17
debt by the Federal Financing Bank for the purpose 18
of entering into an exchange transaction for debt 19
that is subject to the limit under this section. 20
‘‘(6) Suspending investments in the Govern-21
ment Securities Investment Fund of the Thrift Sav-22
ings Fund. 23
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‘‘(7) Suspending investments in the stabiliza-1
tion fund established under section 5302 of title 31, 2
United States Code. 3
‘‘(8) Suspending new investments in the Civil 4
Service Retirement and Disability Fund or the Post-5
al Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund. 6
‘‘(9) Selling or redeeming securities, obligations, 7
or other invested assets of the Civil Service Retire-8
ment and Disability Fund or the Postal Service Re-9
tiree Health Benefits Fund before maturity.’’. 10
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of analysis 11
for chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, is amended 12
by inserting after the item relating to section 3130 the 13
following: 14
‘‘3131. Secretary of Treasury appearance before Congress before reaching debt
limit or extraordinary measures taken.’’.
Æ
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