U.S. President barack Obama has signed a compromise budget to reduce the risk of another government shutdown, a defense bill to come after sexual assailants in the military and smoothen the transfer of detainees from Guantamo Bay Cuba, according to a Reuters report.
The newly signed laws are just two of seven pieces of legislation signed by the president while vacation in Hawaii with his family.
On December 18, the U.S. Senate passed a two-year budget agreement in order to ease the government's automatic spending cuts and reduce another risk of a government shutdown. Senator Patty Murray, D-Washington State, negotiated with Senator Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, who is the House Budget Committee Chairman, the report said.
The president praised the agreement saying "a good first step away from the shortsighted, crisis-driven decision-making that has only served to act as a drag on our economy." The budget deal is the first agreement reached by a divided U.S. Congress since 2009, the report said.
The budget agreement has set government spending for at least two years and has ended three years of bipartisan battle over spending, taxes and Obamacare. The divide between the two political parties almost caused the U.S. economy to default on its debt twice.
Many experts see the budget agreement as a modest deal blunting the effect of automatic sequestration of spending cuts. The accord was seen as a rare bipartisan compromise that without which, could have led to more economic disarray.
The president has also signed the National Defense Authorization Act 2014 (NDAA), an annual defense policy bill that was passed by the U.S. Senate on December 20. The new law authorizes the Pentagon to have a base budget of $526.8 billion for 2014.
The NDAA is wide-ranging in scope which includes reforming military justice with regard to sexual assaults among members of the military and boosting the Pentagon's ability to help destroy chemical weapons in Syria, the report said. Also, the new law covers the issue of transferring prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to countries that are willing to accept them, the report said.
© 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
