Congress has 25 days to sidestep a government shutdown, deal with a mountain of deadlines and avoid economic disaster

Raise the debt ceiling

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Deadline: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the U.S. will hit its current debt ceiling — essentially losing the ability to fund the government — on September 29. The Congressional Budget Office says it’ll happen sometime in early October.

What it means: The debt ceiling is the limit of outstanding debt that the federal government is allowed to hold at one time. Periodically, Congress must raise the ceiling in order for the government to borrow more money and make payments on its debt. Technically, the Treasury Department hit the upper limit in March, but has used “extraordinary measures” to prevent a breach. Those measures will run out sometime around the end of the month.

If it doesn’t pass: If Congress does not raise the debt ceiling, it would be catastrophic for the US economy and global financial markets. According to a report from Beth Ann Bovino, the chief US economist at S&P Global Ratings, a shutdown and debt ceiling could be worse for the US than the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Current state of negotiations: There is a contingent in Congress that is opposed to government borrowing and therefore unwilling to back an increase, despite the fact that both Republican and Democrat administrations have said it is essential. There appear to be talks in Congress about attaching a large package of aid money for Harvey to the debt ceiling bill, which would likely make it easier to pass. Otherwise, it appears a clean increase would be more likely to pass than not with a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans pushing it through.