Treasury Plans $628B Borrowing This Quarter, $800B Early Next Year

The US Treasury has laid out its borrowing plans for the rest of the year, and the numbers are big. On Monday the department said it expects to borrow $628 billion in privately-held net marketable debt between October and December, according to a statement released by Breaking The News. That forecast assumes Treasury wraps the year with $850 billion in cash.

Then comes the bigger ask. For the first quarter of 2027, Treasury is penciling in $800 billion in privately-held net marketable debt, betting on a cash balance of $1 trillion by the end of March. In other words, the borrowing taps stay open well into next year.

Compare that with where Treasury just came from. During the July-to-September 2026 quarter, it borrowed $742 billion in privately-held net marketable debt and closed out the period sitting on $984 billion in cash. The new quarter's target lands below that pace, but the early-2027 projection jumps past it.

The backdrop is a federal balance sheet that keeps swelling. Treasury's latest daily report put the national debt at $40.5 trillion, up by $500 billion in roughly two months after crossing the $40 trillion mark in August.

All of this shapes how much government paper has to find buyers in the months ahead. The cash balances Treasury is targeting — $850 billion by December, $1 trillion by March — set the floor it wants to hold while it keeps the government funded.