The national debt rose to $20.5 trillion this week for the first time, about two months after it first hit $20 trillion.

As of Tuesday, the total debt was $20.503 trillion, according to a government site that tracks the debt. The official amount of debt is tracked Monday through Friday, and is released on the following business day.

The debt has risen steadily since early September, when President Trump signed legislation suspending the debt ceiling. Before then, the debt was frozen at about $19.84 trillion, and that was the maximum the government was able to borrow.

With Trump's signature, however, the debt ceiling was effectively turned off, and the government is now able to borrow as much as it needs in order to meet all of the spending allowed by Congress. The $600 billion increase in the national debt since September reflects months of pent-up demand for government borrowing that couldn't take place for most of 2017, when the government was bumping up against the debt ceiling.

The debt ceiling is due to be turned back "on" again in about a month. At that point, the new debt ceiling will be whatever level of debt the government has racked up.

But Congress is not expected to immediately suspend the debt ceiling again, and instead is likely to wait until well into 2018. The Treasury Department has tools it can use to keep the government under the borrowing limit for several months after the debt ceiling is hit, and is expected to again use these "extraordinary measures" again soon.