The Treasury Department's primary goal in debt management is to finance government borrowing needs at the lowest cost over time. We believe the best way to meet this objective is to issue debt in a regular and predictable pattern, provide transparency in our decision-making process, and seek continuous improvements in the auction process. The risks to regular and predictable issuance result from unexpected changes in our borrowing requirements, changes in the demand for our securities, and anything that inhibits timely sales of our securities. To reduce these risks, we closely monitor economic conditions, fiscal policy and market activity, and, if necessary, respond with appropriate changes in debt issuance based on analysis and consultation with market participants.
Changes in debt management policy are generally developed through the quarterly refunding process near the middle of each calendar quarter. We begin this process by soliciting advice and views from the private sector through questions to primary dealers. We encourage responses to these questions from all interested parties and we interview half of the twenty primary dealers each quarter through face-to-face meetings.
Following the primary dealer meetings, we solicit advice from the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (a committee of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) falling under the regulations of the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the Government Securities Act). The Committee's membership includes representatives from firms that actively trade Treasury securities and firms that make large investments in Treasury securities. The Committee responds to questions and discussion charts presented by Treasury via a formal report to the Secretary of the Treasury. The minutes to these meeting are made public. Our decisions on changes in debt management policy, based on our analyses and the advice we receive from the private sector, are made public in a statement by an Administration official.
While specific changes in debt management policy are usually announced through quarterly refunding statements, they may be announced in separate press releases and may be elaborated upon in speeches and presentations by Treasury officials. In addition, Treasury encourages the public to send views on debt management to debt.management@treasury.gov.