Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter to congressional leaders Friday afternoon that her agency must begin taking “extraordinary measures,” or special accounting maneuvers, as early as Jan. 14 to prevent the country from reaching the debt ceiling.

“The Treasury Department expects to reach the statutory debt ceiling between January 14 and January 23,” Yellen wrote in a letter to House and Senate leadership. At that point, extraordinary measures would be taken to prevent the government from exceeding the country’s debt ceiling – which has been suspended until January 1, 2025.

The ministry has a history of taking what it calls “extraordinary measures,” or accounting maneuvers, to maintain government operations. However, once these measures expire, the government risks defaulting on its debts unless lawmakers and the president agree to lift the cap on the U.S. government’s borrowing capacity.

“I respectfully call on Congress to take action to protect the full faith and credit of the United States,” she said.

The news comes after President Joe Biden signed a bill last week that averts a government shutdown but does not include President-elect Donald Trump’s core debt demand to raise or suspend the country’s debt limit. The bill was approved by Congress only after heated internal debates among Republicans over how to handle Trump’s demand. “Anything less is a betrayal of our country,” Trump said in a statement.

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After a lengthy debate in the summer of 2023 over how to fund the government, policymakers drafted the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which called for the suspension of the country’s $31.4 trillion borrowing authority until January 1, 2025.

What’s notable, however, Yellen said, is that debt is expected to temporarily fall on Jan. 2 due to a planned redemption of non-marketable securities held by a federal trust fund related to Medicare payments. Therefore, “Treasury does not expect that it will be necessary to take extraordinary measures on January 2 to prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations,” she said.

The federal debt currently stands at about $36 trillion — an increase that has exploded under both Republican and Democratic administrations. And the rise in inflation following the coronavirus pandemic has pushed up the government’s borrowing costs, causing debt service to exceed national security spending next year.

Republicans, who will have full control of the White House, House and Senate in the new year, have big plans to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and other priorities but are debating how to pay for them.