[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 24 (Monday, June 17, 2002)]
[Page 1014]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2002

June 14, 2002

    I have today signed into law S. 1372, the Export-Import Bank 
Reauthorization Act of 2002. This legislation will ensure the continued 
effective operation of the Export-Import Bank, which helps advance U.S. 
trade policy, facilitate the sale of U.S. goods and services abroad, and 
create jobs here at home.
    The executive branch shall carry out section 7(b) of the bill, which 
relates to certain small businesses, in a manner consistent with the 
requirements of equal protection under the Due Process Clause of the 
Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
    Subsections 10(a) and 10(b)(2) of the bill purport to require the 
Secretary of the Treasury to negotiate with foreign countries and 
international organizations to achieve particular purposes and to 
require the Secretary to submit a report to congressional committees on 
the contents of negotiations and certain related executive 
deliberations. These provisions interfere with the President's 
constitutional authority to conduct the Nation's foreign affairs, 
supervise the unitary executive branch, and withhold information the 
disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, the national 
security, the deliberative processes of the executive, or the 
performance of the executive's constitutional duties. Accordingly, the 
executive branch shall construe these provisions as precatory rather 
than mandatory.
    The executive branch shall construe the reference to the ``Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General 
Assembly on December 10, 1948,'' added to section 2(b)(1)(B) of the 
Export-Import Bank Act by section 15 of the bill, as only providing 
examples of types of human rights that the President may wish to 
consider in making a determination under section 2(b)(1)(B) and not as 
giving the Universal Declaration the force of U.S. law.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 June 14, 2002.

Note: S. 1372, approved June 14, was assigned Public Law No. 107-189. An 
original was not available for verification of the content of this 
statement.