[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 49 (Monday, December 8, 2003)]
[Pages 1732-1733]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Energy and Water Development Appropriations 
Act, 2004

December 1, 2003

    Today, I have signed into law H.R. 2754, the ``Energy and Water 
Development Appropriations Act, 2004.'' The Act funds programs of the 
Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior's Bureau of 
Reclamation, the Army Corps of Engineers, and several other agencies, 
and provides funds to help protect the Nation's environment.
    The executive branch shall construe provisions of the Act that 
direct the Secretary of a military department to perform the Secretary's 
duties through a particular military officer in a manner consistent with 
the statutory authority of the Secretary of Defense to exercise 
authority, direction, and control of the Department of Defense and the 
constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary 
executive branch and as Commander in Chief.
    Provisions in sections 209 and 303 and under the heading 
``Construction, General'' in title I purport to require the approval of 
committees of the Congress before executive branch execution of aspects 
of the Act or to preclude executive branch execution of a provision of 
the Act upon the written disapproval of such a committee. The executive 
branch shall construe such provisions to require only notification to 
the Congress, as any other construction would contravene the

[[Page 1733]]

constitutional principles set forth by the Supreme Court in INS v. 
Chadha.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 December 1, 2003.

Note: H.R. 2754, approved December 1, was assigned Public Law No. 108-
137.