The presidency of Jimmy Carter began at noon EST on January 20, 1977, when Jimmy Carter was inaugurated as the 39th President of the United States, and ended on January 20, 1981. His first steps in the White House went further in this direction: Carter cut the size of the 500-member White House staff by one-third and reduced the perks for the president and cabinet members. He also fulfilled a campaign promise by issuing a 'full complete and unconditional pardon' (amnesty) for Vietnam War-era draft evaders. In November 1978, Carter signed the Revenue Act of 1978, an $18.7 billion tax cut. Carter paired the deregulation proposal with a windfall profits tax, which would return about half of the new profits of the oil companies to the federal government. Carter used a provision of EPCA to phase in oil controls, but Congress balked at implementing the proposed tax.