Obama Signs $1T Bill to Fund Govt. Through Sept.
Obama Signs Bill ‘Ending the Stalemate’ Over Payroll Tax Cut
Dennis Brack-Pool/Getty Images
U.S. President Barack Obama signs the payroll tax bill in the Oval Office Dec. 23, 2011 in Washington, DC.
U.S. President Barack Obama signs the payroll tax bill in the Oval Office Dec. 23, 2011 in Washington, DC. Photographer: Dennis Brack-Pool/Getty Images
President Barack Obama signed into law a $1 trillion bill to fund much of the government through Sept. 30.
The 1,200-page measure sets spending for 10 Cabinet departments including Defense, Education, Treasury, State, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and Labor.
The new law delays the new energy-efficiency standard for light bulbs, cuts Pell grants that help students from low-income families go to college, and calls for a 17 percent reduction in foreign aid administered through the State Department’s Agency for International Development.
Budgets for the Environmental Protection Agency will be cut by 3 percent, the Internal Revenue Service by 2 percent and the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, by 6 percent.
Earlier efforts to increase security fees charged to airline passengers were dropped, as were proposals to cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood and NPR, the syndicator of public radio programs.
The Senate passed the bill, 67-32, on Dec. 17 after the House gave its approval a day earlier by a vote of 296-121.
The bill is H.R. 2055.
To contact the reporter on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
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