[20211227]IN11702_2021的债务限额.pdf

CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress INSIGHTINSIGHTi i The Debt Limit in 2021 Updated December 27, 2021 Debt limit episodes have been a recurrent federal fiscal feature in the past two decades. Since 2002, the debt limit has been modified 20 times. In August 2019, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 (BBA 2019; P.L. 116-37) suspended the debt limit through July 31, 2021. The limit was reset at just over $28.4 trillion at the beginning of August 2021 and was raised by $480 billion on October 14, 2021. A measure that set up an expedited procedure in the Senate to consider a debt limit increase and delayed some cost-saving measures in Medicare and certain other health programs, once enacted on December 10, cleared the way for a $2.5 trillion debt limit increase signed into law on December 16, 2021. The new limit stands just below $34.4 trillion. The debt limit issue in 2021 had a few unique characteristics. The COVID-19 pandemic has remained a source of economic uncertainty. Fiscal responses spurred by the pandemic accelerated the pace of federal debt accumulation. The U.S. Treasury also had increased its cash balances sharply in 2020 to accommodate those fiscal re