WASHINGTON – Less than a mile from the White House, a beefy security guard sits at his desk, checking laminated IDs before letting government employees pass through to the glass-enclosed lobby behind him.
Tucked on the eighth floor of this mixed-use office building is the little-known U.S. Bureau of Public Debt. Each year, hundreds of billions of dollars – or their computer equivalent – pass through the bureau, where operations are swathed in secrecy.
Because of its importance in the U.S. economy — and its central role in the country’s debt, a major talking point these days in Congress – the bureau hosted a closed-door tour recently for a group of Republican senators, including Tennessee’s Bob Corker.
In their brief morning visit, the senators witnessed the government borrowing $57 billion. Another $32 billion was borrowed later in the day. According to one senator, the bureau planned to borrow a whopping $191 billion that week alone.
Since July, the Department of the Treasury has sold 50 percent of U.S. debt to foreign entities, according to Corker.