    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book II)]
    [November 10, 2003]
    [Page 1502]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1502]]

    Statement on Signing the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies
    Appropriations Act, 2004
    November 10, 2003

        Today, I have signed into law H.R. 2691, the Department of the
    Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004.
        Under the appropriations heading ``Construction'' for the Bureau of
    Indian Affairs, the Act refers to one subsection of title 25 of the
    United States Code that do not exist (25 U.S.C. 2505(f)) and one
    provision in title 25 that exists (25 U.S.C. 2005(a)) but which, as is
    plain from the text of the Act, is not the provision to which the Act
    was intended to refer. The Director of the Office of Management and
    Budget shall submit immediately on my behalf for the consideration of
    the Congress legislation to correct these errors in the Act. If
    corrective legislation is not enacted before execution of the provisions
    under the appropriations heading becomes necessary, the Attorney General
    shall provide a legal opinion to the Secretary of the Interior on how to
    faithfully execute the appropriations heading in light of the errors it
    contains.
        The executive branch shall construe sections 101 and 325 of the Act,
    which purport to require the executive branch to submit to the Congress
    in certain circumstances a request for a supplemental appropriation or
    for enactment of other legislation, in a manner consistent with the
    President's constitutional authority to submit for the consideration of
    the Congress such measures as the President judges necessary and
    expedient.
        Many provisions in the Act purport to require the consent or
    approval of committees of the Congress before executive branch execution
    of aspects of the Act or purport to preclude executive branch execution
    of a provision of the Act upon the written disapproval of such
    committees. The executive branch shall construe such provisions to
    require only notification to the Congress, because any other
    construction would contravene the constitutional principles set forth by
    the United States Supreme Court in 1983 in its decision in INS v.
    Chadha.

                                                              George W. Bush

     The White House,

     November 10, 2003.

    Note: H.R. 2691, approved November 10, was assigned Public Law No. 108-
    108.