Remember the Debt Ceiling Crisis? It Might Happen All Over Again. The Treasury Department on Wednesday pressed Congress to ramp up efforts to boost or suspend the federal debt limit, warning that the department is uncertain whether it could prevent the federal government from running out of cash. The Treasury Department on Wednesday pressed Congress to ramp up efforts to boost or suspend the federal debt limit, warning that the department is uncertain whether it could prevent the federal government from running out of cash. “If Congress has not acted by July 31, Treasury, as it has in the past, may take certain extraordinary measures to continue to finance the government on a temporary basis,” Brian Smith, Treasury’s deputy assistant secretary for federal finance, said. “In light of the substantial Covid-related uncertainty about receipts and outlays in the coming months, it is very difficult to predict how long extraordinary measures might last.”