The U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a letter to Congressional leadership, convincing to take action on the debt limit.

"After the debt limit was reinstated on August 1, Treasury began employing certain extraordinary measures to continue to finance the government on a temporary basis... Once all available measures and cash on hand are fully exhausted, the United States of America would be unable to meet its obligations for the first time in our history."

"Our estimates of the period of time that extraordinary measures will last have been refined in recent weeks, although they continue to be subject to considerable uncertainty due to the normal challenges of forecasting the payments and receipts of the U.S. government, including the uncertainty in the level of corporate and individual taxes due September 15, heightened by the additional uncertainty due to the pandemic and related economic relief, and other factors.

Given this uncertainty, the Treasury Department is not able to provide a specific estimate of how long the extraordinary measures will last. However, based on our best and most recent information, the most likely outcome is that cash and extraordinary measures will be exhausted during the month of October. We will continue to update Congress as more information becomes available."