(CNSNews.com) – A request from President Obama to raise the nation’s debt ceiling by $1.2 trillion could come any day now, as the government hits the current $15.2 trillion ceiling.

The national debt hit that $15.2 trillion ceiling on December 30, according to Treasury Department figures, meaning that the White House will soon have to certify that the limit needs to be increased to allow the government to fund its spending commitments.

Under the debt ceiling deal passed in August, the President must notify Congress that the debt ceiling needs to be raised and by how much. Congress then has 15 days to enact a resolution of disapproval or the President’s request is automatically adopted.

According to the deal, Obama can veto a resolution of disapproval if one actually passes Congress, forcing Congress to attempt to override the veto or see the debt limit automatically increase.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday that the request could come “in a matter of days.”

“I’m confident it will be executed in a matter of days, not weeks,” Carney told reporters at the daily White House briefing.

According to press reports, Obama is asking for the $1.2 trillion increase to ensure that the government can continue to borrow through the end of 2012.

The $1.2 trillion is the lower limit of the third in a series of debt limit increases agreed to in the August compromise – increases that total a record $2.4 trillion increase in the borrowing authority of the Treasury.

Under that deal, the debt was immediately increased by $400 billion in August, then by another $500 billion, and finally by between $1.2 – 1.5 trillion after the Super Committee either finished its work or failed.

Prior to August, the debt ceiling was raised infrequently as the Treasury’s borrowing needs required. Before the August accord, it was last raised in February 2010 by $1.9 trillion and before that in December 2009 by $290 billion.