[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 42 (Monday, October 18, 2004)]
[Pages 2385-2386]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Military Construction Appropriations and 
Emergency Hurricane Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2005

October 13, 2004

    Today, I have signed into law H.R. 4837, the ``Military Construction 
Appropriations and Emergency Hurricane Supplemental Appropriations Act, 
2005.'' This Act provides funding for construction to support the 
operations of the U.S. Armed Forces and for military family housing. The 
Act also provides the funds I requested to help citizens in Florida and 
elsewhere rebuild their lives in the aftermath of multiple hurricanes 
and other natural disasters.
    Sections 107, 110, 113, 118, and 303 of the Act provide for notice 
to the Congress of relocation of activities between military 
installations, initiation of a new installation abroad, U.S. military 
exercises involving $100,000 in construction costs, specific actions to 
encourage foreign nations to assume a greater share of the common 
defense burden, and initiation of certain types of programs. 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

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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 128 of the Act purports to require Department of Defense 
officials to respond in writing within 21 days to any question or 
inquiry from the congressional military construction appropriations 
subcommittees. The executive branch shall construe section 128 in a 
manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to 
supervise the unitary executive branch and 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.
    The executive branch shall construe section 110(d)(2) of the Alaska 
Natural Gas Pipeline Act as contained in Division C of the Act, relating 
to submission of legislative recommendations, in a manner consistent 
with the President's exclusive constitutional authority to recommend for 
the consideration of the Congress such measures as the President judges 
necessary and expedient.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 October 13, 2004.

Note: H.R. 4837, approved October 13, was assigned Public Law No. 108-
324. This statement was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
October 14.