[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[June 30, 2000]
[Page 1363]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Exchange With Reporters in Philadelphia
June 30, 2000

President's Electronic Signature

[The transcript began with a reporter's paraphrased question concerning 
bill signings.]

    The President. ----we had a question if I could even fax a signature 
back on bills and Executive orders. The electronic signature, in effect, 
defines what the obligations--the satisfaction of the obligations of 
commerce contracts. Congress clearly has the authority to define that. 
But there's an open question as to whether we could do it for bills and 
fax. That's why I signed the bill before I did this, because that might 
require a constitutional amendment. And at least it would require some 
sort of judicial opinion or something before we could decide to do it.
    But the volume of bills signed every year is so small, that's really 
not that much of a problem. The only real problem would be if the 
President for some reason had to go abroad at a time when the time was 
running out on a bill. So that's really the only issue here.
    Thank you.

 Note:  The exchange began at approximately 11:15 a.m. at Independence 
Hall. S. 761, the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce 
Act, approved June 30, was assigned Public Law No. 106-229. A tape was 
not available for verification of the content of this exchange.