Lew tells Congress he plans to extend measures to keep under debt limit until Oct. 30

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is telling Congress that he will extend for another three months the authority he is using to take emergency measures to keep from breaching the nation's borrowing limit.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Lew said Wednesday he will extend the current debt-suspension period, which was set to expire Friday, through Oct. 30. He said he believes the emergency measures he is using may be sufficient to keep the government operating for a brief period after Oct. 30.

Since March 16, Lew has been employing a variety of bookkeeping maneuvers such as removing investments from government pension funds to keep from breaching the current debt limit of $18.113 trillion. The debt currently stands $25 million below that figure.