[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 50 (Monday, December 15, 2003)]
[Pages 1774-1775]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and 
Modernization Act of 2003

December 8, 2003

    Today, I have signed into law H.R. 1, the ``Medicare Prescription 
Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003.'' The Act helps 
achieve a more modern Medicare system that includes prescription drug 
coverage and choices for seniors.
    Sections 1012 and 1014 of the Act create a commission and a working 
group, both with most of their members designated by Members of Congress 
or the Comptroller General, a legislative agent. Sections 1012(h)(3) and 
1014(j)(3) purport to give the commission and the working group a right 
to secure directly from executive departments and agencies information 
they seek to perform their duties. The executive branch shall construe 
these provisions in a manner consistent with the constitutional 
authorities of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch 
and to withhold information the disclosure of which could impair the 
deliberative processes of the Executive or the performance of the 
Executive's constitutional duties.
    Section 802 of the Act calls for the President to submit to the 
Congress proposals for legislation in the event that a Medicare funding 
warning is issued under section 801(a)(2). Many other provisions in the 
Act, including sections 101(b), 109(d)(2), 410A(e), 434(f), 507(c)(3), 
645(a)(2), 649(g), 651(d)(2), 911(f), and 1014(o), also call for 
executive branch officials to submit to the Congress proposals for 
legislation. The executive branch shall construe these provisions in a 
manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to 
supervise the unitary executive branch and to recommend for the 
consideration of the Congress such measures as the President judges 
necessary and expedient.
                                                George W. Bush
The White House,
December 8, 2003.

Note: H.R. 1, approved December 8, was assigned Public Law No. 108-173.

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