Exhibit D shows how the components of our financing needs have changed over the last several years. Unified budget deficits, which historically drove our net borrowing needs, decreased dramatically and finally became a surplus. Net Federal lending activities that are not included in the unified budget have added to our financing needs. Another significant change is that we have been filling an increasing share of our financing needs by issuing nonmarketable securities. Treasury will still be the largest issuer in the market, however, as we need to raise the monies to pay off our maturing securities.
Treasury bills are our shortest term offerings, with maturities of less than one year.
To achieve the goals and to promote the principles that I described above, Treasury has a variety of financing tools at its disposal. These include issue sizes, offering schedules, instruments offered, auction rules and possible debt repurchases. In May of this year, we used several of these financing tools to address the exciting challenge brought on by the new environment of budget surpluses. First, we discontinued issuance of 3-year notes. Second, we reduced the frequency of new issues of 5-year notes, shifting to a schedule of quarterly issuances instead of monthly issuances.