Money & budgets
Treasury securities
The bills, notes, and bonds the government sells to borrow money. Their interest rates set a baseline for borrowing costs across the economy.
In full
Treasury bills mature in a year or less, notes in two to ten years, and bonds in twenty or thirty. They are held by individuals, pension funds, banks, and foreign governments. Because they are treated as the benchmark safe asset, a serious question about whether the United States will pay on time affects far more than the federal budget.
Where to go next
Keep going
Browse every term in the glossary, or see the vocabulary in motion in the How government works walkthroughs.
A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.