Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew.(Photo: Andrew Harnik, AP)

WASHINGTON — The United States Treasury has fallen below the minimum $150 billion cash balance, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Thursday in a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to raise the federal debt limit.

Lew's warnings about the debt limit have become all too routine in recent years, as Congress has repeatedly waited until the 11th hour to extend borrowing authority before the nation goes into default. But the cash balance policy is a new wrinkle.

The Treasury Department instituted the minimum cash balance policy earlier this year in order to give it the flexibility to deal with emergencies like hurricanes, terrorist attacks or cyber-attacks, Lew said. "Maintaining this higher cash balance does not increase the debt limit, nor does it alter in any way the length of time Treasury can continue to pay the nation's bills," Lew said.

He said the cash balance fell below $150 billion on August 19, and will likely rebound next week when the Treasury gets an influx of tax receipts — before dwindling again.

The debt limit — now set by law at $18.113 trillion — is the maximum amount of money the government is allowed to borrow for most government expenses. The government has technically been at the limit since March, but the Treasury Department has managed its cash flow by borrowing money from certain federal pension funds and taking other "extraordinary measures."

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Treasury Department will exhaust those measures by mid-November to early December, at which point the United States would be forced into default. But Lew warned Congress that there may be consequences to waiting that long.

"In the past, failure to raise the debt limit in a timely manner has negatively impacted business and consumer confidence, financial markets, and the credit rating of the United States," he said.

Lew's letter comes as House Republicans are renewing their efforts to manage the default if Congress fails to lift the debt limit. The House Ways and Means Committee considered a bill by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Ga., Thursday that would exempt principal and interest payments on the debt from the debt limit. President Obama has threatened to veto similar legislation in the past.

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