    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book II)]
    [December 13, 2003]
    [Pages 1719-1720]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1719]]

    Statement on Signing the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
    2004
    December 13, 2003

        Today, I have signed into law H.R. 2417, the ``Intelligence
    Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004.'' The Act authorizes funding for
    United States intelligence activities, including activities in the war
    against terrorists of global reach.
        Section 506A(c) of the National Security Act of 1947, as enacted by
    section 312(b) of the Act, purports to require the President to request
    that the Congress enact laws appropriating funding for a major
    intelligence system procurement in an amount set as a cost estimate by
    an entity subordinate to the President or to explain why the President
    instead requests amounts below those levels. Moreover, beginning with
    the submittal to the Congress of the President's budget for FY 2006,
    section 312(d)(2) of H.R. 2417 purports to condition the obligation or
    expenditure of funds for development or procurement of a major
    intelligence system on the President's compliance with the requirements
    of section 506A. The executive branch shall construe these provisions in
    a manner consistent with the Constitution's commitment to the President
    of exclusive authority to submit for the consideration of the Congress
    such measures as the President judges necessary and expedient and to
    supervise the unitary executive branch, and to withhold information the
    disclosure of which could impair the deliberative processes of the
    Executive or the performance of the Executive's constitutional duties.
        Section 341(b) purports to require the Attorney General and the
    Director of Central Intelligence, acting through particular offices
    subordinate to them respectively, to establish certain policies and
    procedures relating to espionage prosecutions. The executive branch
    shall implement this provision in a manner consistent with the authority
    committed exclusively to the President by the Constitution to faithfully
    execute the laws and to supervise the unitary executive branch.
    Similarly, sections 1102(a) and 1102(c) of the National Security Act, as
    enacted by section 341(a) of the Act, purport to mandate that the
    Director of Central Intelligence use or act through the Office of
    National Counterintelligence Executive to establish and implement an
    inspection process for all agencies and departments of the U.S.
    Government that handle classified information. The executive branch
    shall implement this provision in a manner consistent with the
    President's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive
    branch.
        The executive branch shall construe and implement section 376 of the
    Act, relating to making available classified information to courts, in a
    manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to
    classify and control access to information bearing on the national
    security and consistent with the statutory authority of the Attorney
    General for the conduct of litigation for the United States.
        Many provisions of the Act, including section 106 and subtitle D of
    title III of the Act, seek to require the executive branch to furnish
    information to the Congress on various subjects. The executive branch
    shall construe the provisions in a manner consistent with the
    President's constitutional authority to withhold information the
    disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, national security,
    the deliberative processes of the Executive, or the performance of the
    Executive's constitutional duties.
        The executive branch shall implement section 319 of the Act in a
    manner consistent with the requirement to afford equal

    [[Page 1720]]

    protection of the laws under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth
    Amendment to the Constitution.
        Section 502 purports to place restrictions on use of the U.S. Armed
    Forces and other personnel in certain operations. The executive branch
    shall construe the restrictions in section 502 as advisory in nature, so
    that the provisions are consistent with the President's constitutional
    authority as Commander in Chief, including for the conduct of
    intelligence operations, and to supervise the unitary executive branch.
        Section 106 enacts by reference certain requirements set forth in
    the joint explanatory statement of the House-Senate committee of
    conference or in a classified annex. The executive branch continues to
    discourage this practice of enacting secret laws and encourages instead
    appropriate non-binding uses of classified schedules of authorizations,
    classified annexes to committee reports, and joint statements of
    managers that accompany the final legislation.

                                                              George W. Bush

    The White House,

    December 13, 2003.

    Note: H.R. 2417, approved December 13, was assigned Public Law No. 108-
    177.