Congress and the President first enacted a statutory limit on federal debt during World War I to eliminate the need for Congress to approve each new debt issuance and provide Treasury with greater discretion over how it finances the government's day-to-day borrowing needs. With the Public Debt Act of 1941, Congress and the President set an overall limit of $65 billion on Treasury debt obligations that could be outstanding at any one time and since then have enacted a number of debt limit increases.