[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 48 (Monday, December 1, 2003)]
[Page 1680]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Military Construction Appropriations Act, 2004

November 22, 2003

    Today, I have signed into law H.R. 2559, the ``Military Construction 
Appropriations Act, 2004.'' The Act appropriates funds for construction 
to support the operations of the U.S. Armed Forces and for military 
family housing.
    Sections 107, 110, and 113 provide for notice to the Congress of 
relocation of activities between military installations, initiation of a 
new installation abroad, or U.S. military exercises involving $100,000 
in construction costs. The Supreme Court of the United States has stated 
that the President's authority to classify and control access to 
information bearing on national security flows from the Constitution and 
does not depend upon a legislative grant of authority. Although notice 
can be provided in most situations as a matter of comity, situations may 
arise, especially in wartime, in which the President must act promptly 
under his constitutional grants of executive power and authority as 
Commander in Chief while protecting sensitive national security 
information. The executive branch shall construe these sections in a 
manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President.
    Section 119 provides for the Secretary of Defense to submit a report 
to Congress with details of proposed actions to encourage certain 
cooperating nations to assume a greater share of the common defense 
burden. Section 128 of the Act establishes a commission of eight 
congressionally-designated members to study the U.S. military facility 
structure overseas and provides for commission access to information. 
The executive branch shall construe sections 119 and 128 in a manner 
consistent with the President's constitutional authority to 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.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 November 22, 2003.

Note: H.R. 2559, approved November 22, was assigned Public Law No. 108-
132.