Treasury Secretary reports that the government will run out of cash a month earlier than expected

Now that Congress has avoided shutting down the government, another task awaits them: funding it. And, according to a letter that Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew sent to outgoing House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday, Congress is now going to have a lot less to work with in figuring out how exactly they're going to do that.

Lew says that the federal government will be running out of money to pay the bills a month sooner than expected, meaning that Congress will now have to negotiate the debt ceiling ahead of a new Nov. 5 deadline. "Without sufficient cash," Lew wrote in the letter, "it would be impossible for the United States of America to meet all of its obligations for the first time in our history." The Treasury has already been "taking emergency measures since March to avoid breaching the $18.1-trillion debt limit," the Daily Intelligencer reports.

The new deadline comes with a unique added pressure: It lands less than a week after Boehner officially leaves Congress. There's the hope that Boehner can get this done before he leaves, as his "impending departure" might "put him in the right political position to buck the conservative wing of his party and compromise on several contentious issues," the Daily Intelligencer reports.

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But if Boehner can't do it — and Congressional leaders don't seize on what The New York Times says could be "their final chance at consensus" — the next guy's odds aren't looking so good.