Moody’s Investors Service, a debt rating agency, suggested today that the United States eliminate its statutory limit on government debt in order to reduce anxiety among bond holders, Reuters reported.

Congress sets a ceiling on government debt, which creates “periodic uncertainty” over the government’s ability to meet its obligations. The United States is one of few countries with a limit on government debt, Reuters reported.

“We would reduce our assessment of event risk if the government changed its framework for managing government debt to lessen or eliminate that uncertainty,” Moody’s analyst Steven Hess wrote in a report.

The agency last week warned it would cut the United States’ AAA credit rating if the government misses debt payments, increasing pressure on Republicans and the White House to come up with a budget agreement.

Moody’s said it had always considered the risk of a U.S. debt default very low because Congress has regularly raised the debt ceiling for many decades, usually without controversy.

“However, divisions between the House of Representatives and President Barack Obama over the debt limit creates a high level of uncertainty and causes us to raise our assessment of event risk,” Hess said.

“Elsewhere, the level of deficits is constrained by a ‘fiscal rule,’ which means the rise in debt is constrained though not technically limited,” Moody’s said, adding that such a rule has been effective in Chile, Reuters reported.

It also cited the example of the Maastricht criterion in Europe, which determines that the ratio of government debt to gross domestic product should not exceed 60 percent. It noted, however, that such a rule is often breached by governments.