93 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

Net

Change

During

Balance Fiscal Balance Average Interest

September 30, Year September 30, Rate

(In billions of dollars) 2016 2017 2017 2017 2016

Treasury securities (public):

Marketable securities:

Treasury bills ............................ 1,644.8 154.8 1,799.6 1.1% 0.4%

Treasury notes ......................... 8,624.3 174.6 8,798.9 1.8% 1.8%

Treasury bonds ........................ 1,825.3 123.1 1,948.4 4.2% 4.4%

Treasury inflation-protected 

securities (TIPS) ....................... 1,209.8 76.3 1,286.1 0.8% 0.8%

Treasury floating rate notes 

(FRN) ....................................... 334.1 8.5 342.6 1.2% 0.4%

Total marketable Treasury 

securities ................................... 13,638.3 537.3 14,175.6

Nonmarketable securities............. 535.1 (37.3) 497.8 2.3% 2.0%

Net unamortized 

premiums/(discounts) ................ (33.8) (5.4) (39.2)

Total Treasury securities, net 

(public) ......................................... 14,139.6 494.6 14,634.2

Agency securities:

Tennessee Valley Authority.......... 23.8 0.1 23.9

All other agencies ........................ 0.2 (0.1) 0.1

Total agency securities, net of 

unamortized premiums and 

discounts ...................................... 24.0 - 24.0

Accrued interest payable ............. 57.5 8.4 65.9

Total federal debt securities held 

by the public and accrued 

interest ....................................... 14,221.1 503.0 14,724.1

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 94

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

governments, FRBs, foreign governments, and other entities outside the federal government. 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 floating rate notes).

• Interest-bearing nonmarketable securities (government account series held by deposit and fiduciary funds, foreign 

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

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

Section 3111 of Title 31, United States Code (U.S.C.) authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to use money received 

from the sale of an obligation and other money in the General Fund to buy, redeem, or refund, at or before maturity, 

outstanding bonds, notes, certificates of indebtedness, Treasury bills, or savings certificates of the Government. 

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 2017 and 2016, Treasury faced two delays in raising the statutory debt limit that required it to depart 

from its normal debt management operations 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 accounts. The first period occurred from March 16, 2015 to October 30, 2015. On Monday, November 2, 

2015, The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (P.L. 114-74) was enacted suspending the statutory debt limit through March 15, 

2017. The second delay in raising the statutory debt limit occurred from March 16, 2017 through September 7, 2017. On 

Friday, September 8, 2017 the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2018 and Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief 

Requirements Act, 2017 (P.L. 115-56) was enacted suspending the statutory debt limit through December 8, 2017.

As of September 30, 2017, and 2016, debt subject to the statutory debt limit was $20,208.6 billion and $19,538.5 

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). See 

Note 25—Subsequent Events for additional information.
95 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 

Intragovernmental Debt Holdings: Federal Debt Securities

Held as Investments by Government Accounts as of September 30, 2017, and 2016

Net

Change

During

Balance Fiscal Year Balance

(In billions of dollars) 2016 2017 2017

Social Security Administration, Federal Old-Age 

and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund ....................... 2,796.7 23.5 2,820.2

Office of Personnel Management, Civil Service 

Retirement and Disability Fund............................... 887.2 17.9 905.1

Department of Defense, Military Retirement Fund.... 591.0 70.0 661.0

Department of Defense, Medicare-Eligible Retiree 

Health Care Fund.................................................. 213.5 12.3 225.8

Department of Health and Human Services, 

Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund ................... 192.2 5.6 197.8

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Deposit

Insurance Fund ..................................................... 71.5 8.7 80.2

Department of Health and Human Services, 

Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust 

Fund .................................................................... 63.3 7.3 70.6

Social Security Administration, Federal Disability 

Insurance Trust Fund ............................................ 45.9 23.8 69.7

Department of Labor, Unemployment Trust Fund ... 53.8 6.9 60.7

Department of Energy, Nuclear Waste Disposal 

Fund..................................................................... 52.4 0.6 53.0

Department of Transportation, Highway Trust Fund . 64.6 (12.3) 52.3

Office of Personnel Management, Postal Service 

Retiree Health Benefits Fund ................................. 51.5 (2.0) 49.5

Office of Personnel Management, Employees Life 

Insurance Fund .................................................... 45.2 0.5 45.7

Department of Housing and Urban Development, 

FHA, Mutual Mortgage Insurance Capital Reserve 

Account ............................................................... 36.4 (5.5) 30.9

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation ................... 23.7 4.7 28.4

Office of Personnel Management, Employees 

Health Benefits Fund ............................................. 23.7 2.3 26.0

Department of the Treasury, Exchange 

Stabilization Fund ................................................. 22.7 (0.6) 22.1

Department of State, Foreign Service Retirement 

and Disability Fund ............................................... 18.3 0.5 18.8

Department of Housing and Urban Development, 

Guarantees of Mortgage-Backed Securities Capital 

Reserve Account................................................... 15.8 1.3 17.1

Department of Transportation, Airport and Airway 

Trust Fund ............................................................ 13.4 - 13.4

National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund........... 12.3 0.8 13.1

United States Postal Service, Postal Service Fund .. 8.5 2.5 11.0

All other programs and funds ................................. 96.3 2.8 99.1

Subtotal ............................................................. 5,399.9 171.6 5,571.5

Total net unamortized premiums/(discounts) for 

intragovernmental.................................................. 72.7 (0.5) 72.2

Total intragovernmental debt holdings, net ......... 5,472.6 171.1 5,643.7
 NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 96

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.