House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s schedule for House votes for the week starting Feb. 10 includes possible consideration of legislation related to the debt limit. No bill has been introduced. Congress plans to be out of session the week of Feb. 17 and plans to return the week of Feb. 24.

Last Minute

“It would be a mistake to wait until the last possible minute to act,” Lew said in his letter to Boehner. After the extraordinary measures run out, any “cash balance would be exhausted quickly,” he said.

Business groups are encouraging lawmakers to act to raise the debt limit, while Democrats including President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada insist it be raised without conditions.

“Any default by the federal government on its debts would cause devastating, long-lasting effects for all Americans,” the Business Roundtable, which represents major U.S. company chief executive officers, wrote in a letter to congressional leaders released today.

Taking the government “to the precipice would foster uncertainty, dampen consumer and business confidence, risk higher borrowing costs, and could have immediate consequences for hiring and investment,” wrote Randall Stephenson, chairman of AT&T Inc., and Louis R. Chenevert, chairman of United Technologies Corp.

Stephenson is president of the Business Roundtable and Chenevert leads the group’s tax and fiscal policy panel.

Market Reaction

The Treasury Department suspended sales of its state and local government series of non-marketable securities today at noon New York time. The securities, called “slugs,” are sold to states and municipalities so they can comply with U.S. tax laws and arbitrage rules when they have money to invest from their issuance of tax-exempt bonds.

After the extraordinary measures run out, the Treasury will be left with about $50 billion in cash, Lew said.

“That number, however, could be materially higher or lower, depending on the pace of tax refund filings,” Lew said. “In previous years, the Internal Revenue Service has issued as much as $10-15 billion in refunds on a single day and nearly $40 billion in a single week.”

Lew also said government expenditures can be as high as $60 billion on certain days.

Insurance against five-year Treasury notes fell to 27.5 basis points today, matching its lowest level of 2014. The value rises with the perceived risk of U.S. debt and falls if it’s deemed a safer investment. One basis point equals $1,000 annually on a contract protecting $10 million of Treasury debt.

Insuring Bonds

The cost of insuring the bonds spiked almost 110 percent in the month before hitting a one-year high of 45.5 basis points on Oct. 4, 2013, as investors grew worried about a U.S. default during the 16-day partial government shutdown.

Republicans haven’t been able to find sufficient votes for at least four plans floated in the past week as conditions for raising the debt limit.

Representative Mac Thornberry, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said yesterday that the idea of restoring military benefits probably wouldn’t be included in a final measure because the change would increase debt.

Other options, since abandoned, included repealing an insurance provision of the Obamacare health-care law and mandating approval of the TransCanada Corp. Keystone XL pipeline.

No ‘Ransom’

“There’s no reason to drag this out any longer,” Senate Budget Chairman Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat, said in a statement today. “Republicans should accept that they’re not getting a ransom out of their brinkmanship and agree to do the right thing for our economy by allowing the United States to pay its bills on time.”

A debt limit increase without conditions, which would need a significant number of Democratic votes, remains a last-ditch option, according to three senior Republican aides who spoke earlier this week on condition of anonymity.

“We’re still looking for the pieces to this puzzle,” Boehner said yesterday, joking that he’d have trouble finding enough Republican votes for a debt ceiling increase even if sainthood for Mother Teresa were attached.

“We need Democratic support in order to pass it,” said Boehner, an Ohio Republican. “We’ve got broad support in our caucus, but I don’t think we have 218 votes.”