Obama signs bipartisan debt ceiling bill into law

China.org.cn, August 3, 2011

Photo released by the White House shows U.S. President Barack Obama signing a bipartisan bill of raising the nation's debt limit into law, ending the month-long perilous stalemate and averting a potentially catastrophic debt default risk, at the White House in Washington, the United States, Aug. 2, 2011. [Xinhua]

US President Barack Obama Tuesday afternoon signed a bipartisan bill of raising the nation's debt ceiling into law, averting a looming debt default crisis.

He signed the bill into law less than two hours after the measure cleared the US Senate with a vote of 74 to 26 to avoid a first-ever government default, Xinhua reported.

The US House of Representatives passed its bill late Monday, by a vote of 269 to 161.

Obama held a news conference in the White House Rose Garden Tuesday afternoon to mark the bill's final passage in both the House and Senate, an effort that required the month-long intense partisan debate, BET news said.

"This compromise guarantees more than US$2 trillion in deficit reduction. It's an important first step in ensuring that as a nation we live within our means. Yet it also allows us to keep making key investments in things like education and research that lead to new jobs," he told the news conference.

Obama announced Sunday night that he had reached a last-ditch debt ceiling deal with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders.

The plan aimed at slashing deficit for more than US$2 trillion over the next decade, setting up a powerful new congressional bipartisan committee to find new ways on deficit cutting, and raising the US borrowing limit through 2013, Xinhua reported.