[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
[October 11, 2002]
[Pages 1783-1784]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Statement on Signing the Vicksburg National Military Park Boundary 
Modification Act of 2002
October 11, 2002

    I have today signed into law S. 1175, the ``Vicksburg National 
Military Park Boundary Modification Act of 2002.'' In 1863, union forces 
under the command of Major General Ulysses S. Grant and confederate 
forces under the command of Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton fought 
for control of Vicksburg, Mississippi, a strategic location on the lower 
Mississippi River. The Act authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to 
add the confederate commander's headquarters to the Park, which has 
included the union commander's headquarters for many decades. The Act 
will enable the Department of the Interior to preserve property for the 
education of Americans today, and in generations to come.
    The second sentence of section 3(b) of the Act reads: ``Upon the 
acquisition of the property referenced in this subsection, the Secretary 
add it to Vicksburg National Military Park and shall modify the 
boundaries of the park to reflect its inclusion.'' It is

[[Page 1784]]

plain in reading the sentence that a word is missing between the words 
``Secretary'' and ``add.''
    In accordance with section 106 of title 1 of the United States Code, 
enrolled bill S. 1175 was presented to me bearing the signatures of the 
Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of 
the Senate, which attests that both Houses passed the bill. In 
accordance with the principles enunciated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 
Marshall Field & Co. v. Clark in 1892, I take the bill presented as 
being duly enrolled and shall not turn to the journals of either House, 
the reports of congressional committees, or other documents printed by 
the authority of Congress in an effort to determine whether an error in 
the enrollment of S. 1175 has occurred.
    Recognizing that the second half of the sentence in issue provides 
that the Secretary ``shall'' modify park boundaries to reflect inclusion 
of the property in the Park, the most reasonable construction of the 
first half of the sentence is that, after the Secretary of the Interior 
acquires the property, addition of the property to the Park by the 
Secretary is mandatory. Accordingly, the executive branch shall 
implement the second sentence of section 3(b) of the Act in the same way 
it would implement the Act if the word ``shall'' appeared in that 
sentence between the words ``Secretary'' and ``add.'' This construction 
is faithful to the legislative intent as evidenced by the content of the 
statute itself.

                                                          George W. Bush

 The White House,

 October 11, 2002.

Note: S. 1175, approved October 11, was assigned Public Law No. 107-238. 
An original was not available for verification of the content of this 
statement.