95 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Note 11. Federal Debt Securities Held by the Public and Accrued 

Interest 

Federal Debt Securities Held by the Public and Accrued Interest as of 

September 30, 2019, and 2018 

Net 

Change 

During 

Balance Fiscal Balance Average Interest 

September 30, Year September 30, Rate 

(In billions of dollars) 2018 2019 2019 2019 2018 

Treasury securities (public): 

Marketable securities: 

Treasury bills ............................ 2,239.5 136.9 2,376.4 2.1% 2.1%

Treasury notes ......................... 9,150.3 605.7 9,756.0 2.2% 2.0%

Treasury bonds ........................ 2,115.0 196.5 2,311.5 3.9% 4.1%

Treasury inflation-protected 

securities (TIPS) ....................... 1,376.2 78.5 1,454.7 0.8% 0.8%

Treasury floating rate notes 

(FRN) ....................................... 369.1 55.0 424.1 2.0% 2.2%

Total marketable Treasury 

securities ................................... 15,250.1 1,072.6 16,322.7 

Nonmarketable securities ............. 511.1 (24.7) 486.4 2.2% 2.8%

 

Net unamortized 

premiums/(discounts) ................ (44.8) 2.1 (42.7)

Total Treasury securities, net 

(public) ......................................... 15,716.4 1,050.0 16,766.4 

Agency securities: 

Tennessee Valley Authority .......... 22.4 (1.4) 21.0 

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

Total agency securities, net of 

unamortized premiums and 

discounts ...................................... 22.5 (1.4) 21.1 

Accrued interest payable ............. 73.8 (0.3) 73.5 

Total federal debt securities held 

by the public and accrued 

interest ........................................ 15,812.7 1,048.3 16,861.0 

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. 
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 96

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 the Treasury and include: 

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

 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). 

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 fiscal years 2019 and 2018, Treasury faced two delays 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 these periods, extraordinary actions taken by Treasury have 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 first delay occurred from December 9, 2017 through 

February 8, 2018. On Friday, February 9, 2018, the BBA of 2018 (P.L. 115-123) was enacted suspending the statutory debt 

limit through March 1, 2019. The second 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, 2019, and 2018, debt subject to the statutory debt limit was $22,686.6 billion and $21,474.8 

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 intragovernmental debt holdings (shown in the following table). 
 97 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Intragovernmental Debt Holdings: Federal Debt Securities 

Held as Investments by Government Accounts as of September 30, 2019, and 2018 

Net 

Change 

During 

Balance Fiscal Balance 

(In billions of dollars) 2018 2019 2019 

Social Security Administration, Federal Old-Age and Survivors 

Insurance Trust Fund ............................................................ 2,801.3 3.1 2,804.4 

Office of Personnel Management, Civil Service Retirement 

and Disability Fund ................................................................ 923.0 16.7 939.7 

Department of Defense, Military Retirement Fund .................... 743.4 84.0 827.4 

Department of Defense, Medicare-Eligible Retiree Health 

Care Fund ............................................................................ 240.2 14.0 254.2 

Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Hospital 

Insurance Trust Fund ............................................................ 202.8 (4.2) 198.6 

Department of Health and Human Services, Federal 

Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund ........................ 98.2 6.5 104.7 

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Deposit Insurance 

Fund ..................................................................................... 96.4 7.6 104.0 

Social Security Administration, Federal Disability Insurance 

Trust Fund ........................................................................... 93.4 3.1 96.5 

Department of Labor, Unemployment Trust Fund ................... 72.6 11.8 84.4 

Department of Energy, Nuclear Waste Disposal Fund .............. 53.4 0.6 54.0 

Department of Housing and Urban Development, FHA, Mutual 

Mortgage Insurance Capital Reserve Account ........................ 27.0 23.6 50.6 

Office of Personnel Management, Employees Life Insurance 

Fund .................................................................................... 46.6 1.6 48.2 

Office of Personnel Management, Postal Service Retiree 

Health Benefits Fund ............................................................. 47.1 (2.5) 44.6 

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ................................... 31.7 5.0 36.7 

Department of Transportation, Highway Trust Fund ................. 41.2 (13.0) 28.2 

Office of Personnel Management, Employees Health Benefits 

Fund ..................................................................................... 27.4 0.4 27.8 

Department of the Treasury, Exchange Stabilization Fund ...... 22.3 0.3 22.6 

Department of State, Foreign Service Retirement and 

Disability Fund ..................................................................... 19.2 0.1 19.3 

 Department of Housing and Urban Development, Guarantees 

of Mortgage-Backed Securities Capital Reserve Account ......... 16.2 (0.5) 15.7 

National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund ........................... 14.9 0.4 15.3 

Department of Transportation, Airport and Airway Trust Fund .. 14.2 0.8 15.0 

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Deposit Fund ............... 13.6 0.0 13.6 

U.S. Postal Service, Postal Service Fund ................................ 10.5 (1.2) 9.3 

 All other programs and funds ................................................. 98.4 (3.0) 95.4 

 Subtotal ............................................................................. 5,755.0 155.2 5,910.2 

Total net unamortized premiums/(discounts) for 

intragovernmental ................................................................. 69.9 3.2 73.1 

    Total intragovernmental debt holdings, net ......................... 5,824.9 158.4 5,983.3 
NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 98

Intragovernmental 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 more information on funds from dedicated collections, see Note 20─Funds from Dedicated Collections. 

These intragovernmental debt holdings are eliminated in the consolidation of these financial statements.