APPENDIX edness or Treasury bills issued hereunder, and to meet public expenditures authorized by law, such sum or sums as in his judgment may be necessary, and to issue therefor (1) certificates of indebtedness of the United States at not less than par and at such rate or rates of interest, payable at such time or times as he may prescribe; or 2) Treasury bills on a discount basis and payable at maturity without interest. Treasury bills to be issued hereunder shall be offered for sale on a competitive basis, under such regulations and upon such terms and condi tions as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, and the decisions of the Secretary in respect of any issue shall be final. Certificates of indebtedness and Treasury bills issued hereunder shall be in such form or forms and subject to such terms and ‘conditions, shall be payable at such time not exceeding one year from the date of issue, and may be redeemable before maturity upon such terms and conditions as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe. Treasury bills issued hereunder shall not be acceptable before maturity in payment of interest or of principal on account of obligations of foreign governments held by the United States of America. The sum of the par value of such certificates and Treasury bills out- standing hereunder and under section 6 of the First Liberty Bond Act shall not at any one time exceed in the aggregate $10,000,000,000. (b) All certificates of indebtedness and Treasury bills issued hereunder (after the date upon which this subdi- vision becomes law) shall be exempt, both as to principal and interest, from all taxation (except estate and inherit- ance taxes) now or hereafter imposed by the United States, any State, or any of the possessions of the United States, or by any local taxing authority; and the amount of discount at which Treasury bills are originally sold by the United States shall be considered to be interest within she meaning of this subdivision. (c) Wherever the words “bonds and notes of the United States,” or “bonds and notes of the Government of the United States,” or “bonds or notes of the United States” are used in the Federal Reserve Act, as amended, they shall be held to include certificates of indebtedness and Treasury bills issued hereunder.