WASHINGTON—The U.S. Treasury Department said Friday the total amount repaid to taxpayers for government funds used to bail out U.S. companies has surpassed, for the first time, the amount of outstanding debt.

The Treasury, in its May report to Congress on the Troubled Asset Relief Program, reported TARP repayments reached $194 billion, which has exceeded by $4 billion the total amount of outstanding debt—$190 billion.

However, the outstanding debt amount does not include $106.36 billion that has been committed to institutions but has yet to be paid out by the Treasury. Factoring in that amount, the outstanding debt would be roughly $296 billion.

According to the report, $489.88 billion has been committed to specific institutions, and $383.52 billion of that has been paid out by Treasury. The department said it does not expect to use more than $550 billion of the $700 billion program.

A Treasury official described the manner in which the department characterized the totals as "a cash flow issue."