However, when documents such as presidential speeches, remarks, Executive Orders, or Statements of Administration Policy help elucidate a signing statement, those documents are presented in the annotations to the signing statements.

NUMBERING FOR SIGNING STATEMENTS

Unlike Executive Orders and Proclamations, presidential signing statements are not numbered or indexed on the White House website. Nor are they grouped or labeled in a way that they can be easily accessed or identified. For this reason, I have created a numbering scheme for the signing statements, as follows: 

YYYY-NN

The first four numbers indicate the year in which the signing statement was issued. The last two numbers indicate the chronological order of issuance. Thus, 2005-17 is the 17th signing statement issued in 2005. These numbers are not official and are not provided by the White House or any government entity or publisher.

SOURCE CITATIONS

Signing statements appear in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (WCPD), issued by the GPO. I have provided WCPD citations in this format: 

        <Volume #> WCPD <page number> (<issue date>).

Example:        42 WCPD 425 (March 13, 2006)

UPDATES

Sources are checked daily. The website was last updated at 6:09 a.m. (Central) on January 30, 2009.

TEXT OF LAWS REFERRED TO IN SIGNING STATEMENTS

Each signing statement refers to the bill or resolution that the president is signing. Laypersons often find it difficult to access the bills and resolutions, and this can make it difficult to understand the signing statements.

For instance, when signing H.R. 1815 (the "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006"), the president stated:

"A number of provisions of the Act, including sections 905, 932, 1004, 1212, 1224, 1227, and 1304, call for the executive branch to furnish information to the Congress on various subjects. The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to withhold information the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative processes of the Executive, or the performance of the Executive's constitutional duties."  (emphasis added)

Obviously, one cannot understand this statement without seeing the text of §§ 905, 932, 1004, 1212, 1224, 1227, and 1304 of the Act. One can discern that the president has reserved the right to withhold information that Congress has said the executive branch must furnish. However, to see exactly what information Congress required of the Executive, one must read the Act.

Therefore, this website provides links to the full text of every Congressional enactment that is the subject of a signing statement. Readers may view these laws in PDF or plain text format by using the annotations for signing statements. Both the plain text and the PDF versions of the laws are from the GPO website. The plain text links take the reader directly to files residing on the GPO website. The PDF links take the reader to documents residing on this website; however all such files were downloaded -- without change -- directly from the GPO. In some cases, text of the laws has been excerpted and added to the annotations to aid in searching the webpage (e.g., a search for "Sarbanes-Oxley" on the annotated text page will locate the relevant signing statement by finding these words in text excerpted from the bill or resolution).

The annotations to the signing statements also provide public law numbers and session law citations for all bills and resolutions that are subjects of signing statements. These citations help researchers: (i) track the laws in codified statutes, and (ii) cite the laws. Public law numbers and session laws are cited in accordance with "The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (17th Ed. Columbia, Harvard, Pennsylvania, and Yale Law Reviews)." Session laws are cited to the United States Statutes at Large.

COPYRIGHT

The purpose of this webpage is to provide free convenient access -- for the entire world -- to verifiable text of George W. Bush's presidential signing statements and the laws to which they apply. No one needs permission to link to this site. No copyright, intellectual property, or other rights are claimed in any of the laws, signing statements, or other government-authored documents presented here. No one owns the law or presidential signing statements. Feel free to data mine or swipe the laws, signing statements, and other government documents.

However, there are four items of original authorship on this website: (i) the FAQs page; (ii) the entire page titled "About This Website;" (iii) the annotations following each signing statement; and (iv) the "News About Signing Statements" feature. You must have my prior express permission to reproduce, publish, post, or (especially) to modify these materials. For information about permission, click here. I am requiring permission for two reasons. First, some sites have reproduced this site in its entirety but made no effort to keep the materials up to date. Second, some sites that reproduced this site altered the materials without making it clear who was responsible for the alterations. I am glad that people want to make these statements available for free on the web and will assist those who wish to post the signing statements and laws. But I cannot allow other people's words to be attributed to me.

Please note, also, that this website houses a number of law review articles, audio files, and other materials with written permission from the authors and rights-holders. These individuals have been generous, and are allowing me to make these materials available to the public for free. Please respect these individuals' intellectual property rights. All such materials are clearly marked as being reproduced with permission of the owners. 

WHO MAINTAINS THIS WEBSITE, AND WHY?

My name is Joyce Green.  I have a BA in Political Science, an AB in International Studies, and a Juris Doctor. I have been licensed to practice law since 1988.  I first posted this website in May of 2006, when the media was just beginning to report about signing statements and scholarly writing about the statements was relatively scarce. 

I built the website for two reasons: (1) to provide free, convenient public access to the signing statements; and (2) to provide an objective, nonpartisan, and verifiable resource - a reliable research tool for reporters, scholars, lawyers, and anyone who is interested in signing statements. My purpose is not to guide opinion about signing statements, but to equip members of the public to explore the topic and form their own opinions.

The legal and political issues raised by signing statements are not partisan issues. Rather, they affect the presidency itself, regardless of who occupies the post. They affect the balance of power in American government and, thus, implicate the functioning of democracy itself. Therefore, on the links page, I collect all points of view that I can, across the political spectrum. 

MIRROR SITE

The law library at Pace University Law School in New York is now mirroring this site, with my permission. Like this website, the mirror site at Pace provides the signing statements and annotations to the general public at no charge. I am giving this website, and exclusive rights to the compilation, to Pace Law School. Pace will eventually take over the materials and this website will disappear. I will give notice before this happens, so that you can reset your bookmarks.