The Congressional Budget Office projected Wednesday that the United States will breach the debt ceiling in August or September unless Congress acts.

The CBO released the timeline for the “X date,” or the date at which the Treasury would not be able to pay all incoming bills on time and in full. The X date is not a set date but instead fluctuates based on day-to-day expenditures and incoming revenues.

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“The projected exhaustion date is uncertain because the timing and amount of revenue collections and outlays over the intervening months could differ from CBO’s projections,” according to the CBO report.

In the months ahead of the X date, the Treasury Department would take “extraordinary measures” to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its obligations. The measures essentially involve moving around government funds to pay incoming bills without issuing new debt, although the Treasury only has a few months of runway before those measures are exhausted.

The CBO noted that if the government’s borrowing needs are significantly greater than the CBO projects, resources could be exhausted in late May or sometime in June. But if borrowing is much less than anticipated, the X-date timeline could be pushed back.

“If the debt limit is not raised or suspended before the extraordinary measures are exhausted, the government will be unable to pay all of its obligations,” the report reads. “As a result, it would have to delay making payments for some activities, default on its debt obligations, or both.”

After the report was released, Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, warned in a statement that a default would be a calamitous outcome for the U.S. and urged lawmakers to raise the debt ceiling while working to lower the country’s national debt.

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“Lifting the debt ceiling does not authorize new spending; it accommodates the borrowing Congress and the President already approved,” she said. “Thus, it should be a reminder to lawmakers every time they pass legislation authorizing more borrowing that the debt ceiling will have to be lifted again.”

The national debt has spiraled to $36.6 trillion and rising.