UPDATED 4:00 PM PT

President Clinton approved a massive $520 billion spending bill Wednesday -- and, in the process, signed a plethora of technology-related measures into law.

With the government 22 days into the new fiscal year and at risk of another shutdown, the omnibus bill was rushed through the House late Tuesday and the Senate early Wednesday. Clinton approved the bill late Wednesday.

The budget bill passed the Senate by a vote of 65-29, and passed the House by a margin of 333-95. It provides funding for the majority of federal agencies and departments, and includes many technology bills added during negotiations over the last several weeks.

The technology measures included in the omnibus bill are:

• The Internet Tax Freedom Act, which provides for a three-year moratorium on e-commerce taxes;

• The Workforce Improvement and Protection Act, which temporarily doubles the number of skilled workers allowed to enter the U.S. under the H-1B visa program;

• The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, a Federal Trade Commission-sponsored measure requiring Web sites to get permission from parents before collecting private information from children under age 13;

• A measure requiring Internet service providers to provide content filtering software to subscribers;

• The Government Paperwork Elimination Act, which will increase the use of digital signatures for federal forms submitted online; and

• The Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which makes it a crime for Web sites to post materials deemed "harmful to minors" without putting such materials behind age-verification screens. Free-speech watchdog groups including the American Civil Liberties Union are poised to file a legal challenge to this measure as soon as Clinton signs the budget bill, ACLU staff attorney Ann Beeson said Wednesday.

Lawmakers return to begin the 106th Congress on Jan. 6, 1999.