WASHINGTON (AP) - The Treasury Department said Wednesday it will auction $22 billion in longer term notes and bonds next week and for now doesn't foresee any major changes in its borrowing needs to finance the national debt, which stands at $8.8 trillion.

The department's decision comes as it considered the government's financing needs, which is done on a quarterly basis. Treasury needs to borrow to finance the daily operation of the government, including meeting interest payments on the national debt.

As part of its financing plan for the current quarter, the department next Wednesday will sell $13 billion in 10-year notes, maturing Aug. 15, 2017. Next Thursday it will sell $9 billion in 29-year, nine-month bonds maturing May 15, 2037.

Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson warned that the United States may be unable to pay its bills this fall unless Congress raises the government's borrowing authority, now capped at $8.965 trillion.

Paulson said the government is likely to bump into the statutory debt limit in early October. He did not say how much more borrowing authority the Bush administration needs.

The Treasury Department warned big government security dealers and other financial players that they "should be prepared for possible delays in the auction schedule if Congress does not enact legislation to raise the debt limit in a timely fashion."

Congress has already boosted the statutory debt limit several times during President Bush's tenure. The last time Congress upped the government's borrowing authority was in March 2006, when it agreed to raise the debt ceiling by $781 billion.

Boosting the debt limit is more a matter of politics than economics.

Economists doubt Congress will refuse to raise the limit. A federal default is considered unimaginable because it would rattle bond markets, force interest rates higher and shake the economy.

The White House projects the federal government budget deficit to drop to $205 billion this year, which would mark an improvement from last year's red ink of $248 billion.

Against this backdrop, some members of an advisory committee that works with Treasury mapping out the government's borrowing needs questioned whether Treasury's five-year inflation indexed note should be eliminated at some point.

Other members, however, urged caution. Those members noted that current trends in terms of more restrained spending, which has helped narrow the budget deficit, "may quickly reverse in the coming year, and that Treasury should be prepared for higher borrowing needs," according to minutes of the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, whose members include Wall Street bond dealers. Another member noted that a "sudden shift" in the economy could affect revenues. Sharply slower growth could hinder revenues, while robust growth could help.