The Treasury Department plans to sell $123 billion in T-bills right on the X-date, but there's a catch

• The Treasury announced a "tentative" T-bill auction for Monday, based on whether the debt limit is lifted.

• The auction would occur on June 5, when the government expects to run out of money without a debt deal.

• If Congress acts in time, $65 billion in 3-month bills and $58 billion in 6-month bills would be sold.

The Treasury Department scheduled a T-bill auction for June 5, but it would be postponed if the US fails to resolve the debt ceiling crisis by then.

For now, Treasury plans to sell $65 billion in 3-month bills and $58 billion in 6-month bills on Monday and settle them on June 8.

But their sale will not take place if Congress doesn't approve the debt ceiling bill by then, as the Treasury would not be able to issue such securities under the current debt limit.

Normally, the Treasury Department discloses on Thursdays the amount of three- and six-month bills to be sold on the following Monday. However, this week it indicated that such an auction was "tentative," and "conditional on enactment of the debt limit suspension."

That's as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has estimated June 5 to be the newest X-date, or the day the US would run out of funds if Congress fails to lift the country's borrowing limit.

After a tumultuous back-and-forth through May, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden managed to settle on a deal over the weekend to lift the debt limit until 2025.

However, the potential for a default is still on the table, as the bill needs to be approved by both houses of Congress. Though it has recently been passed by the House of Representatives, the Senate has just days left to vote on it.

Meanwhile, the government continues to run out of cash. As of Tuesday, the Treasury General Account held about $37 billion, having held $140 billion in mid-May. The cash reserve is at its lowest since September 2017, according to Bloomberg.

Read the original article on Business Insider