With just hours to go before most of the United States was due to close down for the Christmas holiday, Congressman George Holding today at last delivered a long-anticipated bill aimed at addressing the enormous problems many Americans living abroad have been having that are a result, most agree, of the fact that they are taxed on the basis of their citizenship rather than jurisdiction of residence.

Over the last few months, details have begun to emerge about soon-to-be-introduced legislation aimed at making the U.S. tax regime less unforgiving for the 9 million Americans estimated to live overseas, growing numbers of whom say they feel they now have no choice but to renounce their U.S. citizenships.