President Barack Obama signed the 2013 bipartisan budget deal on Thursday, the AP reported.
The legislation passed the Democratic-controlled Senate on a vote of 64-36 last week, six days after clearing the Republican-run House by a similarly bipartisan margin of 332-94. It will ease spending cuts over the next two years.
The deal was first announced by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Dec. 10. Spending for the next fiscal year is set at $1.012 trillion and the following year at $1.014 trillion. That represents an increase by $45 billion in one year and $63 billion over the course of two years.
More from the Associated Press:
Obama signed the bill Thursday while vacationing in Hawaii. The deal reduces across-the-board cuts already scheduled to take effect, restoring about $63 billion over two years. It includes a projected $85 billion in other savings.
It's not the grand bargain that Obama and congressional Republicans once had wanted, but it ends the cycle of fiscal brinkmanship for now, by preventing another government shutdown for nearly two years.
The bill signing marks one of Obama's last official acts in a year beset by the partial government shutdown, a near-default by the Treasury, a calamitous health care rollout and near-perpetual congressional gridlock.
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