Last week, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew sent a letter to Congressional leadership regarding the steps (also known as “extraordinary measures”) that the Treasury Department will begin to take to continue financing the federal government once the statutory debt limit is reinstated on Monday, March 16. Secretary Lew said in the letter that beginning this Friday, March 13, Treasury will suspend until further notice the issuance of State and Local Government Series (SLGS) securities, which are issued to states and municipalities to assist them in conforming to certain tax rules and which count against the debt limit when issued. The Secretary requests that federal lawmakers “raise the debt limit as soon as possible.” Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report estimating that the Treasury Department will exhaust its use of extraordinary measures in October or November of this year, though this is subject to change depending on to what extent the timing and size of federal revenues and outlays differ from CBO’s current projections. Congress will need to act to raise the debt limit before these measures are exhausted in order to ensure the federal government is able to fulfill all of its funding obligations. Given that the deadline for raising the debt limit is projected to be this fall, the debate to raise the debt ceiling may coincide with lawmakers’ negotiations over fiscal 2016 appropriations.