WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged congressional leadership to raise the debt ceiling by mid-July, in a letter sent May 9 and viewed by USA TODAY. Otherwise, the federal government will hit the current debt ceiling sometime in August, Bessent wrote.

The so-called "X-date" marks when the government could run out of borrowing power and face an unprecedented default without action from Congress to address the debt limit.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on Congress Friday to raise the nation’s debt ceiling by mid-July to keep the federal government from defaulting on its more than $36 trillion debt. In a