[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book III)]
[December 8, 2004]
[Pages 3058-3061]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Statement on Signing the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005
December 8, 2004

    Today, I have signed into law H.R. 4818, the ``Consolidated 
Appropriations Act, 2005'' (CAA). The CAA, consisting of eleven 
Divisions, consolidates into a single Act several appropriations bills 
that the Congress normally passes separately each year to fund the 
operations of the Federal Government, and also several bills that are 
not normally part of an appropriations bill.
    Many provisions of the CAA are inconsistent with the constitutional 
authority of the President to conduct foreign affairs, command the Armed 
Forces, protect sensitive information, supervise the unitary executive 
branch, make appointments, and make recommendations to the Congress. 
Many other provisions unconstitutionally condition execution of the laws 
by the executive branch upon approval by congressional committees.

    The executive branch shall construe as advisory provisions of the 
CAA that purport to direct or burden the Executive's conduct of foreign 
relations or to limit the President's authority as Commander in Chief. 
Such provisions include: in the Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations 
Act, sections 406, 611, 609, 627, and the provision regarding voting in 
the United Nations Security Council under the heading ``Contributions 
for International Peacekeeping Activities''; in the Foreign Operations 
Appropriations Act, sections 506, 514, 531, 547, 561,

[[Page 3059]]

562, 580, 585, 593, and the provisions entitled ``Other Bilateral 
Economic Assistance, Economic Support Fund'' and ``Andean Counterdrug 
Initiative''; as well as in Division J (``Other Matters''), section 
3(b)(3) of the 225th Anniversary of the American Revolution 
Commemoration Act.
    The executive branch shall also construe the provisions of the CAA 
in a manner consistent with the President's authority to supervise the 
unitary executive branch, including the authority to direct which 
officers in the executive branch shall assist the President in 
faithfully executing the law. Such provisions include in the 
Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Act, sections 618 and 628, and 
language relating to review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
of executive branch orders, activities, regulations, transcripts, and 
testimony, particularly language relating to OMB review of certain 
matters in reports to be submitted to the Congress through the Secretary 
of the Army.
    The executive branch shall construe provisions in the CAA that 
purport to mandate or regulate submission of information to the 
Congress, other entities outside the executive branch, or the public, in 
a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to 
withhold information that could impair foreign relations, national 
security, the deliberative processes of the Executive, or the 
performance of the Executive's constitutional duties. Such provisions 
include: in the Agriculture Appropriations Act, section 717; in the 
Commerce-Justice-State Appropriations Act, sections 407, 409, and 
provisions concerning a budget proposal under the heading ``National 
Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordination Council''; in the 
Energy and Water Appropriations Act, sections 112, 113, and 503; in the 
Foreign Operations Appropriations Act, section 559; in the Labor-HHS-
Education Appropriations Act, a provision under the heading ``Department 
of Health and Human Services, Office of the Secretary''; in the 
Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Act, sections 522 and 618; in the 
VA-HUD Appropriations Act, section 210; and in Division J, section 16 of 
the L-1 Visa and H-1B Visa Reform Act.
    The executive branch shall construe provisions of the CAA that 
purport to make consultation with the Congress a precondition to the 
execution of the law as calling for, but not mandating, such 
consultation, as is consistent with the Constitution's provisions 
concerning the separate powers of the Congress to legislate and the 
President to execute the laws. Such provisions include: in the Foreign 
Operations Appropriations Act, sections 509, 512, 543, 569, 588, and 
provisions under the heading ``International Disaster and Famine 
Assistance,'' ``Transition Initiatives,'' ``Andean Counterdrug 
Initiative,'' and ``Debt Restructuring''; and in the Interior and 
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, provisions under the heading 
``National Park Service, Historic Preservation Fund,'' and 
``Administrative Provisions, Smithsonian Institution.''
    The executive branch shall construe provisions that purport to 
require or regulate submission by executive branch officials of 
legislative recommendations to the Congress consistently with the 
President's constitutional authority to recommend to the Congress such 
measures as he judges necessary and expedient. Such provisions include: 
in the Agriculture Appropriations Act, section 721; in the Commerce-
Justice-State Appropriations Act, sections 628 and 902; in the Interior 
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, section 102; in the 
Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Act, section 404; in the VA-HUD 
Appropriations Act, section 215; and in Division K, section 152 of the 
Small Business Reauthorization and Manufacturing Assistance Act of 2004.
    In section 601 of the Energy and Water Appropriations Act, section 2 
of the amended Tennessee Valley Authority Act shall be construed 
consistently with the President's

[[Page 3060]]

constitutional authority to make nominations and appoint officers. So 
that section 522 of the Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Act may 
be faithfully executed, the executive branch shall construe subsection 
(c), which provides that an agency privacy officer's signature on a 
report to the agency inspector general shall constitute verification by 
the officer ``that the agency is only using information in identifiable 
form as detailed in the report'' to mean that the signature constitutes 
verification to the best of the officer's knowledge after diligent 
inquiry.
    The executive branch shall construe as calling solely for 
notification the provisions of the CAA that are inconsistent with the 
requirements of bicameral passage and presentment set forth in the 
Constitution, as construed by the Supreme Court of the United States in 
1983 in INS v. Chadha. Such provisions include: in the Agriculture 
Appropriations Act, sections 705, 718, 736, and a provision under the 
heading ``Food and Drug Administration, Salaries and Expenses''; in the 
Energy and Water Appropriations Act, section 303; in the Interior and 
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, sections 305, 313, 329, 332, 333, 
and provisions under the headings ``United States Fish and Wildlife 
Service, Administrative Provisions,'' ``National Park Service, 
Construction,'' ``Department of the Interior, Departmental Management, 
Salaries and Expenses,'' ``Natural Resource Damage Assessment and 
Restoration, Administrative Provisions,'' ``Forest Service, Wildland 
Fire Management,'' ``Administrative Provisions, Forest Service,'' 
``Indian Health Service, Indian Health Facilities,'' ``Administrative 
Provisions, Indian Health Service,'' and ``Administrative Provisions, 
Smithsonian Institution''; in the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations 
Act, section 208 and a provision under the heading ``Pension Benefit 
Guaranty Corporation''; in the Transportation-Treasury Appropriations 
Act, sections 201, 211, 212, 217, 218, 403, 510, 511, 614, 623, and 642, 
and provisions under the headings ``Department of Transportation, Office 
of the Secretary, Salaries and Expenses,'' ``Department of 
Transportation, Office of the Secretary, Working Capital Fund,'' 
``Federal Transit Administration, Administrative Expenses,'' 
``Department of the Treasury, Departmental Offices, Salaries and 
Expenses,'' ``Internal Revenue Service, Business Systems 
Modernization,'' ``Office of Administration, Salaries and Expenses,'' 
``High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program,'' and ``Real Property 
Activities, Federal Building Fund, Limitations on Availability of 
Revenue''; and in the VA-HUD Appropriations Act, section 111 and 
provisions under the headings ``Department of Veterans Affairs, 
Departmental Administration, Construction, Minor Projects'' and 
``National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Administrative 
Provisions.''
    As is consistent with the principle of statutory construction of 
giving effect to each of two statutes addressing the same subject 
whenever they can co-exist, the executive branch shall construe the 
provision in the Energy and Water Appropriations Act under the heading 
``National Nuclear Security Administration, Weapons Activities'' 
concerning transfer of funds from the Department of Defense to 
constitute an ``express authorization of Congress'' to which section 
8063 of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2005 (Public Law 
108-287) refers.
    A number of provisions in the CAA purport to allocate funds for 
specified projects and amounts set forth in the joint explanatory 
statement of managers that accompanied the CAA; to make changes in 
statements of managers that accompanied various appropriations bills 
reported from conferences in the past; or to direct compliance with a 
report of one committee of one House of Congress. The executive branch 
shall construe these provisions in a manner consistent with the 
bicameral passage and presentment requirements of the Constitution for 
the making of a law. Such

[[Page 3061]]

provisions include in the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act, section 
595; in the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act, provisions under the 
headings ``Innovation and Improvement,'' ``Rehabilitation Services and 
Disability Research,'' ``Higher Education,'' and ``Institute of 
Education Sciences''; in the Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Act, 
sections 125 and 173; and in the VA-HUD Appropriations Act, provisions 
under the headings ``Community Development Fund'' and ``Department of 
Housing and Urban Development, Management and Administration, Salaries 
and Expenses.''
    Several provisions of CAA relate to race, ethnicity, or gender. The 
executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent 
with the requirements that the Federal Government afford equal 
protection of the laws under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth 
Amendment to the Constitution.
    Section 12 of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act authorizes 
overseas travel for members of the U.S. Capitol Police in support of 
travel by Senators. To ensure consistency with the President's 
constitutional authority to conduct the Nation's foreign affairs, the 
executive branch shall construe section 12 as authorizing travel for the 
limited purposes of advance, security, and protective functions in 
support of the official travel of Senators. The executive branch shall 
construe the term ``intelligence gathering'' in section 1007 of the 
Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, which relates to activities of 
the U.S. Capitol Police outside their geographic jurisdiction, as 
limited to collection of information for law enforcement and protective 
functions authorized by other laws relating to the U.S. Capitol Police, 
as any other construction would be inconsistent with the Constitution's 
vesting of the executive power in the President.
    The executive branch shall construe section 638 of the 
Transportation-Treasury Appropriations Act, relating to assignment of 
executive branch employees to perform functions in the legislative 
branch, in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional 
authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and as Commander in 
Chief, and recognizing that the President cannot be compelled to give up 
the authority of his office as a condition of receiving the funds 
necessary to carrying out the duties of his office.

                                                          George W. Bush

 The White House,

 December 8, 2004.

Note: H.R. 4818, approved December 8, was assigned Public Law No. 108-
447.