[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 28 (Thursday, February 11, 1999)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 6779-6780]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-3504]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 28 / Thursday, February 11, 1999 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

[[Page 6779]]

                Presidential Determination No. 99-12 of February 3, 
                1999

                
Vietnamese Cooperation in Accounting for United 
                States
                Prisoners of War and Missing in Action (POW/MIA)

                Memorandum for the Secretary of State

                As provided under section 609 of the Departments of 
                Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and 
                Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1999, as contained 
                in the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental 
                Appropriations Act, 1999, Public Law 105-277, I hereby 
                determine, based on all information available to the 
                United States Government, that the Government of the 
                Socialist Republic of Vietnam is fully cooperating in 
                good faith with the United States in the following four 
                areas related to achieving the fullest possible 
                accounting for Americans unaccounted for as a result of 
                the Vietnam War:

                  1) resolving discrepancy cases, live sightings, and 
                    field activities;
                  2) recovering and repatriating American remains;
                  3) accelerating efforts to provide documents that 
                    will help lead to the fullest possible accounting 
                    of POW/MIAs; and,
                  4) providing further assistance in implementing 
                    trilateral investigations with Laos.

                I further determine that the appropriate laboratories 
                associated with POW/MIA accounting are thoroughly 
                analyzing remains, material, and other information and 
                fulfilling their responsibilities as set forth in 
                subsection (B) of section 609, and information 
                pertaining to this accounting is being made available 
                to immediate family members in compliance with 50 
                U.S.C. 435 note.

                I have been advised by the Department of Justice that 
                section 609 is unconstitutional because it purports to 
                use a condition on appropriations as a means to direct 
                my execution of responsibilities that the Constitution 
                commits exclusively to the President. I am providing 
                this determination as a matter of comity with the 
                Congress, while reserving the position that the 
                condition enacted in section 609 is unconstitutional.

                In making this determination, I have taken into account 
                all information available to the United States 
                Government as reported to me, including the full range 
                of ongoing accounting activities in Vietnam, joint and 
                unilateral Vietnamese efforts, and the concrete results 
                we have attained as a result of these efforts.

                Finally, in making this determination, I wish to 
                reaffirm my continuing personal commitment to the 
                entire POW/MIA community, especially to the immediate 
                families, relatives, friends, and supporters of these 
                brave individuals, and to reconfirm that the central, 
                guiding principle of my Vietnam policy is to achieve 
                the fullest possible accounting of our prisoners of war 
                and missing in action.

[[Page 6780]]

                You are authorized and directed to report this 
                determination to the appropriate committees of the 
                Congress and to publish it in the Federal Register.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    Washington, February 3, 1999.

[FR Doc. 99-3504
Filed 2-10-99; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4710-10-M