[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 35 (Monday, September 2, 2002)]
[Page 1427]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing Legislation on the Codification of Public 
Buildings, Property, and Works

August 23, 2002

    I have signed into law H.R. 2068, a bill ``to revise, codify, and 
enact without substantive change certain general and permanent laws, 
related to public buildings, property, and works, as title 40, United 
States Code, `Public Buildings, Property, and Works'.'' This measure is 
the latest in a series that is intended to enact all titles of the 
United States Code into positive law.
    In approving this bill, I note that section 312(b)(2), concerning 
cert in transfers of funds for equipment purchases, and section 
3305(a)(3), concerning the use of land as a site for a public building, 
state that the executive branch may take action only after receiving the 
approval of certain committees of Congress. The constitutional 
requirement of bicameralism and presentment is infringed whenever a 
single house, committee, or agent of Congress attempts to direct the 
execution of the laws or to promulgate rules or standards intended to 
bind the actions of executive or administrative officials that have not 
been approved by both houses and presented to the President. INS v. 
Chadha, 462 U.S. 919, 958-59 (1983). The executive branch will therefore 
interpret these and similar provisions to require advance notification 
only, since any other interpretation would contradict the Supreme 
Court's ruling in INS v. Chadha.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 August 23, 2002.

Note: H.R. 2068, approved August 21, was assigned Public Law No. 107-
217. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.