Presidential Signing Statements - George W. Bush - 2001-2009 -- Full Text Annotated

Signing Statements: George W. Bush

2001-2009

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NEW ON THIS SITE For a list of all signing statements issued by George W. Bush and the Congressional enactments to which each statement pertains, click below. HTML VERSION PDF VERSION

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When the updates are complete, this website will report the signing statements issued by President Barack Obama, as well as George W. Bush. In the interim, all sources will continue to be checked daily for new signing statements.

ABA President: Ending Abuse of Signing Statements is Among Immediate Priorities for Next President to Improve Rule of Law in America

The Third Branch, the official newsletter of the federal judiciary, has published an interview with H. Thomas Wells, Jr., President of the American Bar Association, which includes this exchange:

Question: If you had one piece of advice on matters that impact the legal community to offer the incoming White House Administration, what would it be?

Answer: In the October issue of the ABA Journal, Thomas Susman of the ABA’s Government Affairs Office and I jointly signed a letter to the next President—we intentionally did it before we knew who the next President would be—making several suggestions on things that he could do immediately after his inauguration to improve, not only the legal community but indeed the rule of law.

We intentionally tried to look at things that would not require legislation: judicial nominations and confirmations; doing something with our broken immigration system; rejecting the use of Presidential signing statements; and protecting the attorney-client privilege.

(emphasis added). The whole article is here.

The entire memorandum to the next president from Wells and Susman appeared in the October issue of the ABA Journal and is available here. The memo describes an abusive use of signing statements and calls upon the next president to reject "this constitutionally suspect use of signing statements" as "contrary to the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers."

CRS Report on Statutory Interpretation Discusses Judicial Reliance on Signing Statements

The CRS addresses signing statements in the context of statutory interpretation in its report, Statutory Interpretation: General Principles and Recent Trends (Order Code 97-589) (updated August 31, 2008) (source: Open CRS). The discussion of signing statements, which begins on page 48, opens with this summary:

Judicial reliance on presidential signing statements to interpret statutes poses problems above and beyond those presented by reliance on legislative materials, and there is no consensus as to whether courts should rely at all on signing statements.

President Bush Issues Two New Signing Statements

14 October 2008: The White House released two signing statements on Tuesday, October 14. The signing statement for H.R. 928, the "Inspector General Reform Act of 2008," is available here or at the White House website. The signing statement for S. 3001, the "Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009," is available here or at the White House website.

Bush Issues New Signing Statement

8 October 2008: The White House released President Bush's signing statement for HR 7081, the ‘‘United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and Nonproliferation Enhancement Act.’’ You can read the signing statement here or at the White House website.

Indications That Bush May Issue Signing Statement for India Nuclear Pact

5 October 2008: Several reports have indicated that President Bush may issue a signing statement when he signs HR 7081, the ‘‘United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and Nonproliferation Enhancement Act,’’ which passed both houses of Congress last week. The Washington Post reports that a "senior Indian official" claims that President Bush has promised a signing statement to address India's concerns about fuel supplies from the US if India conducts a nuclear test. In a State Department report of remarks by Secretary Condoleezza Rice and Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, a reporter asked Secretary Rice whether President Bush would address India's concerns in a signing statement. Secretary Rice neither denied nor confirmed that a signing statement will be issued, but promised that India's concerns would be addressed. Indian news sources directly claim that India expects a signing statement from President Bush. NDTV note with video: "India expects that Bush's signing statement will say that 123 Agreement is only framework of reference and also believes that the statement will provide legal validity to the agreement." IANS article (reprinted at ExpressBuzz): "N-deal: Bush may sign away Indian concerns Oct 8." Secretary Rice states that last week's delays in signing the nuclear trade pact with India are attributable to Congress's efforts to address the national financial crisis. Here are the New York Times articles on Senate and House passage of HR 7081. The HR 7081, as enrolled and agreed to by the House and Senate and provided by the Governent Printing Office, is available here.

President Bush Issues New Signing Statement

30 September 2008: The White House released President Bush's signing statement for H.R. 2638, the "Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009." You can read the signing statement here or at the White House website.

House Armed Services Committee Report on Signing Statements

20 August 2008: The House Armed Services Committee has released a four-page report entitled "Findings of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in Support of the Full Committee re: Presidential Signing Statements." The report is available at the Committee website, the website of the Federation of American Scientists, or this website.

House Judiciary Committee Hearing on "Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitations"

On 25 July 2008, the House Judiciary Committee held an oversight hearing on "Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitations." Signing statements were among many issues addressed during the hearing. A list of witnesses and their prepared statements are available here. Streaming video (in Real Audio format) of the hearing is available at C-SPAN.

The hearing included HR 1258, the article of impeachment introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) in June, 2008. However, the hearing did not provide for a possibility of a vote on HR 1258. Rep. Kucinich discussed his article of impeachment against President Bush and the Committee hearing on C-SPAN.

Several witnessses addressed issues surrounding signing statements.

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Sources are checked daily. This website was last updated 1/30/2009 at 6.09 am (Central)

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