103 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 

Note 12. Federal Debt and Interest Payable 

Federal Debt and Interest Payable as of September 30, 2023, and 2022 (held by the public) 

Average Interest 

Net Rate 

(In billions of dollars) 2022 Change 2023 2023 2022 

Treasury securities: 

Marketable securities: 

Treasury bills 3,643.7 1,615.6 5,259.3 5.4% 2.5% 

Treasury notes 13,696.5 28.4 13,724.9 2.1% 1.6% 

Treasury bonds 3,867.7 372.5 4,240.2 3.1% 3.0% 

Treasury inflation-protected securities 

(TIPS) 1,839.8 95.1 1,934.9 0.6% 0.5% 

Treasury floating rate notes (FRN) 625.9 (50.4) 575.5 5.0% 3.3% 

Total marketable Treasury securities 23,673.6 2,061.2 25,734.8 

Nonmarketable securities 625.6 (30.3) 595.3 3.7% 2.7% 

 Net unamortized premiums/(discounts) (71.7) (47.0) (118.7) 

Total Treasury securities, net (public) 24,227.5 1,983.9 26,211.4 

Agency securities: 

Tennessee Valley Authority 19.0 0.3 19.3 

Total agency securities, net of unamortized 

premiums and discounts 19.0 0.3 19.3 

Accrued interest payable 81.5 35.5 117.0 

Total federal debt and interest payable 24,328.0 2,019.7 26,347.7 

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 5 years or more. 

FRN–Term of 2 years. 

Federal debt held by the public consists of securities outside the government 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: 

x Interest-bearing marketable securities (bills, notes, bonds, inflation-protected, and FRN). 

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

foreign series, SLGS, domestic series, and savings bonds). 

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

In FY 2020, Treasury expanded its domestic series to include a new special nonmarketable Treasury security, known as 

a SPV security. Treasury issued these securities to SPVs, which were established by the Federal Reserve to implement its 
 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 104 

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. The total 

amount of SPV redemptions in FY 2023 and 2022 was $4.0 billion and $7.0 billion, including $0.5 billion and $0.1 billion in 

capitalized interest, respectively. There were no new issuances of SPV securities in FY 2023 and 2022. As of September 30, 

2023, and 2022, the total amount of SPV securities outstanding was $11.9 billion and $15.4 billion, respectively. 

Gross federal debt, with some adjustments, is the sum of debt held by the public and intra-governmental debt holdings 

(discussed on the next page) and 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 

$65.0 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. 

Beginning in FY 2021 and continuing into FY 2022 and again in FY 2023, Treasury faced two delays in raising the debt 

limit that required it to depart from its normal debt management procedures and invoke legal authorities to avoid exceeding 

the statutory debt limit. During these periods, 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 

government accounts subsequent to the end of the delay period. During the first delay, Treasury took extraordinary actions 

from August 2, 2021, through December 15, 2021. On October 14, 2021, P.L. 117-50 was enacted, which raised the statutory 

debt limit by $480.0 billion, from $28,401.5 billion to $28,881.5 billion. Even with this increase, extraordinary measures 

continued for Treasury to manage below the debt limit. On December 16, 2021, P.L. 117-73 was enacted, increasing the debt 

limit by $2,500.0 billion, from $28,881.5 billion to $31,381.5 billion. Due to a second delay in raising the statutory debt limit, 

Treasury took extraordinary actions from January 19, 2023, through June 2, 2023. On June 3, 2023, P.L. 118-5 was enacted 

suspending the debt limit through January 1, 2025. 

As of September 30, 2023, and 2022, outstanding debt obligations subject to the statutory debt limit was $33,070.5 

billion and $30,869.3 billion, respectively. The debt subject to the limit includes Treasury securities held by the public 

(shown in the above table) and intra-governmental debt holdings (shown in the following table), with some adjustments. 

From FY 2022 to FY 2023, interest on Treasury securities held by the public increased from $496.5 billion to $678.0 billion. 

This $181.5 billion increase primarily resulted from an increase in the outstanding debt held by the public and an increase in 

the average interest rate (see table above), which were offset by a decrease in inflation adjustments. 
105 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 

Intra-governmental Debt Holdings: Federal Debt Securities 

Held as Investments by Government Accounts as of September 30, 2023, and 2022 

Net 

(In billions of dollars) 2022 Change 2023 

Social Security Administration, Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust 

Fund 2,723.6 (49.9) 2,673.7 

Department of Defense, Military Retirement Fund 1,194.7 172.1 1,366.8 

Office of Personnel Management, Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund 1,011.7 24.9 1,036.6 

Department of Defense, Medicare-Eligible Retiree Health Care Fund 322.0 32.2 354.2 

Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Hospital Insurance Trust 

Fund 177.4 17.0 194.4 

Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Supplementary Medical 

Insurance Trust Fund 168.0 (8.5) 159.5 

Social Security Administration, Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund 114.7 28.2 142.9 

Department of Housing and Urban Development, FHA, Mutual Mortgage 

Insurance Capital Reserve Account 119.9 13.2 133.1 

Department of Transportation, Highway Trust Fund 127.5 (11.8) 115.7 

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Deposit Insurance Fund 125.5 (41.2) 84.3 

Department of Labor, Unemployment Trust Fund 73.6 8.2 81.8 

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation 55.6 5.6 61.2 

Department of Energy, Nuclear Waste Disposal Fund 56.6 3.9 60.5 

Office of Personnel Management, Employees Life Insurance Fund 51.0 1.5 52.5 

Office of Personnel Management, Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund 35.6 (3.6) 32.0 

Office of Personnel Management, Employees Health Benefits Fund 27.3 (1.7) 25.6 

U.S. Postal Service, Postal Service Fund 20.9 1.1 22.0 

National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund 20.7 0.9 21.6 

Department of State, Foreign Service Retirement and Disability Fund 20.7 0.4 21.1 

Department of Housing and Urban Development, Guarantees of MortgageBacked Securities Capital Reserve Account 18.4 2.6 21.0 

Department of Transportation, Airport and Airway Trust Fund 10.8 5.8 16.6 

Department of the Treasury, ESF 18.4 (3.7) 14.7 

Department of the Interior, Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund 14.4 0.3 14.7 

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Deposit Fund 13.7 (2.4) 11.3 

Environmental Protection Agency, Hazardous Substance Superfund 9.4 1.6 11.0 

Army Corps of Engineers, Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund 9.4 1.0 10.4 

All other programs and funds 88.3 9.6 97.9 

 Subtotal 6,629.8 207.3 6,837.1 

Total net unamortized premiums/(discounts) for intra-governmental 88.7 (49.8) 38.9 

 Total intra-governmental debt holdings, net 6,718.5 157.5 6,876.0 

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 22—Funds from Dedicated Collections. 

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