[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 16 (Monday, April 25, 2005)]
[Pages 654-655]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Memorandum on Effective Dates of Provisions in Title I of the 
Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004

April 21, 2005

Memorandum for the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, 
the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Energy, 
the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of the Office of 
Management and Budget, the Director of National Intelligence

Subject: Effective Dates of Provisions in Title I of the Intelligence 
Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004

    Subsection 1097(a) of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism 
Prevention Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-458, December 17, 2004) (the Act) 
provides:
(a)         IN GENERAL--Except as otherwise expressly provided in this 
            Act, this title and the amendments made by this title shall 
            take effect not later than 6 months after the date of the 
            enactment of this Act.
    Subsection 1097(a) clearly contemplates that one or more of the 
provisions in Title I of the Act may take effect earlier than the date 
that is 6 months after the date of enactment of the Act, but does not 
state explicitly the mechanism for determining when such earlier effect 
shall occur, leaving it to the President in the execution of the Act. 
Moreover, given that section 1097(a) evinces a legislative intent to 
afford the President flexibility, and such flexibility is 
constitutionally appropriate with respect to intelligence matters (see 
United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corporation, 299 U.S. 304 
(1936)), the executive branch shall construe section 1097(a) to 
authorize the President to select different effective dates that precede 
the 6-month deadline for different provisions in Title I.
    Therefore, pursuant to the Constitution and the laws of the United 
States of America,

[[Page 655]]

including subsection 1097(a) of the Act, I hereby determine and direct:
 1.          Sections 1097(a) and 1103 of the Act, relating respectively 
            to effective dates of provisions and to severability, shall 
            take effect immediately upon the signing of this memorandum 
            to any extent that they have not already taken effect.
 2.          Provisions in Title I of the Act other than those addressed 
            in numbered paragraph 1 of this memorandum shall take effect 
            immediately upon the signing of this memorandum, except:
 (a)         any provision in Title I of the Act for which the Act 
            expressly provides the date on which the provision shall 
            take effect; and
 (b)         sections 1021 and 1092 of the Act, relating to the National 
            Counter-
            terrorism Center.
    The taking of effect of a provision pursuant to section 1097(a) of 
the Act and this memorandum shall not affect the construction of such 
provision by the executive branch as set forth in my Statement of 
December 17, 2004, upon signing the Act into law.
    The Director of the Office of Management and Budget is authorized 
and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
                                                George W. Bush