    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book I)]
    [April 23, 2003]
    [Pages 359-360]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Statement on Signing the Postal Civil Service Retirement System Funding
    Reform Act of 2003
    April 23, 2003

        Today I have signed into law S. 380, the Postal Civil Service
    Retirement System Funding Reform Act of 2003. The Act reforms the
    funding of benefits under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) for
    employees of the United States Postal Service.
        Under the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, including as
    construed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997 in Edmond v. United States,
    statutory authority to make decisions for the United States that are
    final must be exercised by, or subject to the control of, a principal
    officer of the United States. Sections 2(c) and 3(b) of the Act vest in
    certain circumstances in the CSRS Board of Actuaries (Board) authority
    to reconsider, review, and make adjustments with finality in certain
    determinations, redeterminations, and computations made by the Director
    of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Yet, Board members are not
    principal officers because they have not been appointed by the
    President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, as the
    Appointments Clause requires. They have instead been appointed by the
    Director of OPM in accordance with law. Moreover, the Board is not
    subject to the control of a principal officer in conducting the review,
    reconsideration, and adjustments for which sections 2(c) and 3(b) of the
    Act provide, because those sections make such Board action final.
    Accordingly,

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    to the extent that sections 2(c) and 3(b) make the actions of the Board
    under those sections final, they are inconsistent with the Appointments
    Clause.
        The Director of OPM shall prepare forthwith for submission to the
    Congress recommended legislation to conform statutes related to the CSRS
    Board of Actuaries to the Appointments Clause. While awaiting enactment
    of corrective legislation, I instruct the Director of OPM, who is a
    principal officer, to receive any results of reconsideration, review, or
    adjustments by the Board under sections 2(c) and 3(b) of the Act as
    advice and opinion for the Director's approval, modification, or
    disapproval. This instruction gives the fullest effect to the Act that
    is consistent with the Appointments Clause.
        Sections 2(e)(1), 3(e)(1), and 3(f)(1)(B) of the Act purport to
    require officials in the executive branch to submit recommendations to
    the Congress or an agent of the Congress. The executive branch shall
    construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the constitutional
    authority of the President to submit for the consideration of the
    Congress such measures as the President judges necessary and expedient.

                                                              George W. Bush

     The White House,

     April 23, 2003.

    Note: S. 380, approved April 23, was assigned Public Law No. 108-18.