The U.S. Treasury Department will boost the amount of long-termdebt it sells to $73 billion this quarter as President DonaldTrump's administration seeks to finance budget deficits set towiden further because of tax cuts and higher spending.

In its quarterly refunding announcement on Wednesday, thedepartment again lifted the auction sizes of coupon-bearing andfloating-rate debt after doing so last quarter for the first timesince 2009. It again left inflation-linked security sizesunchanged. Treasury also announced plans to issue a new two-monthbill later in 2018.

After keeping borrowing relatively stable in recent years, theTreasury announcement highlights the Trump administration's need tosell debt to help pay the government's bills as the deficit swellsand the Federal Reserve allows maturing securities on its $4.4trillion balance sheet to roll off gradually. The possible new billmaturity comes after a deluge of sales over the first quarter waspartly to blame for money-market rates rising sharply.