President Obama signed the final bill of his presidency into law Friday morning, just before President-elect Trump’s inauguration.
The legislation “codifies the Presidential Innovation Fellows Program to enable exceptional individuals with proven track records to serve time-limited appointments in executive agencies to address some of the Nation’s most significant challenges,” according to a statement from White House press secretary Josh Earnest that went out in the final hour before Trump takes the oath of office.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy sponsored the Talent Act, which he said will allow private-sector experts to “upgrade our government’s use of technology,” particularly in high-profile agencies such as the IRS and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Now, these are engineers, designers, innovators, and thinkers. They challenge the old ways of thinking and introduce new approaches to make our government work the way the American people deserve it to work,” McCarthy, a California Republican, said on January 10. “By drawing on the great talent of the American people, we can make government effective, efficient, and accountable.”
The approval of the law adds to an historically-low tally for the Obama administration, which presided over a divided government for six of his eight years in office. “Over the course of his eight years, he has signed just 1,227 bills into law — less, even, than one-term Presidents Carter and George H.W. Bush,” according to a Washington Times analysis published Tuesday.
