The U.S. Treasury Department has utilized special measures to access approximately 82% of the debt limit.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury cited data as of May 21st, stating that in addition to cash reserves, the Treasury also has $67 billion in special measures available to pay government bills. According to a statement released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on Friday, this funding comes from a total of $366 billion in authorized measures designed to prevent the government from running out of borrowing space under the statutory debt limit, down from approximately $82 billion on May 14th. These measures are a collection of various accounting tricks that allow the government to continue selling debt, even though its debt has reached the $36.1 trillion borrowing limit set by Congress in early January. The Treasury has been taking special accounting actions since January 21st to avoid breaching the U.S. debt ceiling, and has once again urged lawmakers to take action to raise or temporarily suspend the statutory limit. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers earlier this month that if the federal debt ceiling is not raised or temporarily suspended by then, the United States is likely to run out of its borrowing authority in August. Meanwhile, according to data released on Friday, the Treasury's cash balance fell to $474 billion on Thursday.