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 The two-year U.S. budget agreement, negotiated by Congress earlier
this month, and the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal
2104 were among seven pieces of legislation signed by Obama, who is
vacationing with his family in Hawaii.
The U.S. Senate passed the budget deal on December 18 to ease
automatic spending cuts and reduce the risk of a government
shutdown. It was negotiated by Democratic Senator Patty Murray of
Washington state and Paul Ryan, Republican from Wisconsin, who is
chairman of the House Budget Committee.
Obama at that time praised the measure — the first budget agreed to
by a divided Congress since 2009 — saying it was "a good first step
away from the shortsighted, crisis-driven decision-making that has
only served to act as a drag on our economy." He did not comment
further on Thursday.
The Senate approved the annual defense policy bill on December 20,
one of its final actions before leaving for the Christmas break.
The act authorizes a Pentagon base budget of $526.8 billion in the
2014 fiscal year. That amount will have to be reconciled early in
the new year with the $498 billion agreed to in the budget deal.
The wide-ranging bill also included several measures to reform the
way the military justice system responds to sexual assaults among
members of the military and boosts the Pentagon's ability to help
destroy Syria's chemical weapons.
The bill also makes it easier for the White House to transfer
prisoners from the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to
countries willing to accept them.
MODEST BUDGET DEAL
The budget accord set federal government spending levels for two
years. It ended, at least for the time being, three years of bitter
bipartisan warfare over spending, taxes and Obama's healthcare law
that twice brought the nation to the brink of defaulting on its
debt.
Widely viewed as a modest deal, it blunts the effect of automatic
"sequestration" spending cuts by allowing spending to rise by $63
billion over scheduled levels in fiscal 2014 and 2015.
The accord was hailed as a welcome but rare example of bipartisan
compromise and came after Congress' approval ratings sank to
historic lows because of seemingly never-ending brinkmanship over
spending and taxes.
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The deal avoids raising taxes, an important goal for Republicans,
and provides more funding for education and other domestic programs
championed by Democrats.
It raises revenues by increasing airport security fees, trimming
federal retirement benefits and curtailing some military pensions.
However, the pact omits an extension of long-term unemployment
benefits favored by Obama. A projected 1.3 million people will lose
extended unemployment benefits when they expire on Saturday.
It also leaves for lawmakers to work out an increase in the federal
debt ceiling, which, if left unchanged at its current $16.7 trillion
level, could again put the United States at risk of default.
The deal was seen by conservative Republicans as a missed
opportunity to make a significant cuts to the federal budget
deficit, which was $680.3 billion in the fiscal year ending
September 30. It has since narrowed in absolute terms and as a
percentage of the economy as employment rises.
Congress now has the task of slicing the more than $1.012 trillion
pie to determine funding levels for individual government programs.
Without new spending authority, the federal government could
partially shut down on January 15, as it did for 16 days in October
when Republicans sought to tie spending legislation to delays or
cutbacks in the president's signature Affordable Care Act healthcare
law, also known as Obamacare.
The administration has warned Congress that the government could run
out of borrowing authority as soon as February if lawmakers do not
raise the debt limit.
(Reporting by Ros Krasny in Honolulu and Mark Felsenthal in
Washington; editing by Dan Grebler)
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