103 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Note 12. Federal Debt and Interest Payable

Federal Debt and Interest Payable as of September 30, 2020, and 2019

Average Interest

Net Rate

(In billions of dollars) 2019 Change 2020 2020 2019

Treasury securities (public):

Marketable securities:

Treasury bills ............................ 2,376.4 2,651.7 5,028.1 0.2% 2.1%

Treasury notes ......................... 9,756.0 899.9 10,655.9 1.9% 2.2%

Treasury bonds ........................ 2,311.5 356.6 2,668.1 3.5% 3.9%

Treasury inflation-protected 

securities (TIPS) ....................... 1,454.7 67.7 1,522.4 0.7% 0.8%

Treasury floating rate notes 

(FRN) ....................................... 424.1 54.2 478.3 0.3% 2.0%

Total marketable Treasury 

securities ................................... 16,322.7 4,030.1 20,352.8

Nonmarketable securities............. 486.4 179.6 666.0 1.1% 2.2%

Net unamortized 

premiums/(discounts) ................ (42.7) 16.0 (26.7)

Total Treasury securities, net 

(public) ......................................... 16,766.4 4,225.7 20,992.1

Agency securities:

Tennessee Valley Authority.......... 21.0 (1.2) 19.8

All other agencies........................ 0.1 - 0.1

Total agency securities, net of 

unamortized premiums and 

discounts ...................................... 21.1 (1.2) 19.9

Accrued interest payable ............. 73.5 (2.6) 70.9

Total federal debt and interest 

payable ....................................... 16,861.0 4,221.9 21,082.9

Types of marketable securities:

Bills–Short-term obligations issued with a term of 1 year or less.

Notes–Medium-term obligations issued with a term of 2-10 years. 

Bonds–Long-term obligations of more than 10 years.

TIPS–Term of more than 5 years.

FRN–Term of 2 years.

Federal debt securities held by the public outside the government are held by individuals, corporations, state or local 

governments, FRBs, foreign governments, and other non-federal entities. The above table details government borrowing 

primarily to finance operations and shows marketable and nonmarketable securities at face value less net unamortized 

premiums and discounts including accrued interest.

Securities that represent federal debt held by the public are issued primarily by Treasury and include:

• Interest-bearing marketable securities (bills, notes, bonds, inflation-protected, and FRN).
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 104

• Interest-bearing nonmarketable securities (Government Account Series held by fiduciary and certain deposit funds, 

foreign series, state and local government series, domestic series, and savings bonds).

• Non-interest-bearing marketable and nonmarketable securities (matured and other).

This fiscal year, Treasury expanded its domestic series to include a new special non-marketable Treasury security, 

known as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) security. Treasury issued these securities to SPVs, which were established by the 

Federal Reserve to implement its emergency lending facilities under Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act to respond to 

the COVID-19 pandemic. An SPV security is a demand deposit certificate of indebtedness for which interest accrues daily 

and is paid at redemption. As of September 30, 2020, the total amount of SPV securities outstanding was $96 billion.

Gross federal debt (with some adjustments) is subject to a statutory ceiling (i.e., the debt limit). Prior to 1917, Congress 

approved each debt issuance. In 1917, to facilitate planning in World War I, Congress and the President first enacted a 

statutory dollar ceiling for federal borrowing. With the Public Debt Act of 1941 (P.L. 77-7), Congress and the President set an 

overall limit of $65 billion on Treasury debt obligations that could be outstanding at any one time; since then, Congress and

the President have enacted a number of debt limit increases. 

During FY 2019, Treasury faced a delay in raising the statutory debt limit that required it to depart from its normal debt 

management procedures and to invoke legal authorities to avoid exceeding the statutory debt limit. During this period, 

extraordinary actions taken by Treasury resulted in federal debt securities not being issued to certain federal government 

accounts with the securities being restored including lost interest to the affected federal government accounts subsequent to 

the end of the delay period. The delay in raising the statutory debt limit occurred from March 2, 2019 through August 1, 

2019. On Friday, August 2, 2019, the BBA of 2019 (P.L. 116-37) was enacted suspending the statutory debt limit through 

July 31, 2021.

As of September 30, 2020, and 2019, debt subject to the statutory debt limit was $26,920.4 billion and $22,686.6 

billion, respectively. The debt subject to the limit includes Treasury securities held by the public and government guaranteed 

debt of federal agencies (shown in the table above) and intra-governmental debt holdings (shown in the following table). 
 105 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Intra-governmental Debt Holdings: Federal Debt Securities

Held as Investments by Government Accounts as of September 30, 2020, and 2019

Net

(In billions of dollars) 2019 Change 2020

Social Security Administration, Federal Old-Age and Survivors 

Insurance Trust Fund ............................................................ 2,804.4 6.8 2,811.2

Office of Personnel Management, Civil Service Retirement 

and Disability Fund................................................................ 939.7 22.4 962.1

Department of Defense, Military Retirement Fund.................... 827.4 88.9 916.3

Department of Defense, Medicare-Eligible Retiree Health 

Care Fund ............................................................................ 254.2 14.7 268.9

Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Hospital 

Insurance Trust Fund ............................................................ 198.6 (64.9) 133.7

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Deposit Insurance 

Fund..................................................................................... 104.0 4.9 108.9

Social Security Administration, Federal Disability Insurance 

Trust Fund ........................................................................... 96.5 0.7 97.2

Department of Health and Human Services, Federal 

Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund ........................ 104.7 (17.2) 87.5

Department of Housing and Urban Development, FHA, Mutual 

Mortgage Insurance Capital Reserve Account ........................ 50.6 17.3 67.9

Department of Energy, Nuclear Waste Disposal Fund.............. 54.0 0.7 54.7

Department of Labor, Unemployment Trust Fund ................... 84.4 (33.9) 50.5

Office of Personnel Management, Employees Life Insurance 

Fund .................................................................................... 48.2 0.9 49.1

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ................................... 36.7 8.9 45.6

Office of Personnel Management, Postal Service Retiree 

Health Benefits Fund ............................................................. 44.6 (2.7) 41.9

Office of Personnel Management, Employees Health Benefits 

Fund..................................................................................... 27.8 0.5 28.3

Department of State, Foreign Service Retirement and 

Disability Fund ..................................................................... 19.3 0.7 20.0

National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund........................... 15.3 1.3 16.6

U.S. Postal Service, Postal Service Fund................................ 9.3 5.7 15.0

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Deposit Fund ............... 13.6 (0.7) 12.9

Department of Transportation, Highway Trust Fund................. 28.2 (16.1) 12.1

Department of the Treasury, Exchange Stabilization Fund ...... 22.6 (11.4) 11.2

Department of Housing and Urban Development, Guarantees 

of Mortgage-Backed Securities Capital Reserve Account......... 15.7 (7.3) 8.4

Department of Transportation, Airport and Airway Trust Fund .. 15.0 (7.1) 7.9

All other programs and funds ................................................. 95.4 3.2 98.6

Subtotal ............................................................................. 5,910.2 16.3 5,926.5

Total net unamortized premiums/(discounts) for intragovernmental........................................................................ 73.1 (0.8) 72.3

Total intra-governmental debt holdings, net........................ 5,983.3 15.5 5,998.8
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 106

Intra-governmental debt holdings represent the portion of the gross federal debt held as investments by government

entities such as trust funds, revolving funds, and special funds.

Government entities that held investments in Treasury securities include trust funds that have funds from dedicated

collections. For additional information on funds from dedicated collections, see Note 21─Funds from Dedicated Collections.

These intra-governmental debt holdings are eliminated in the consolidation of these financial statements.