[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 31 (Monday, August 8, 2005)]
[Page 1243]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Department of the Interior, Environment, and 
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006

August 2, 2005

    Today, I have signed into law H.R. 2361, the ``Department of 
Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006.'' 
This bill appropriates funds for FY 2006 for the Department of the 
Interior, the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, the 
Indian Health Service of the Department of Health and Human Services, 
the Environmental Protection Agency, and several smaller agencies.
    Provisions of the Act that purport to require congressional 
committee or individual leaders' approval prior to execution of the law 
shall be construed as calling solely for notification, as any other 
construction would be inconsistent with the principles enunciated by the 
Supreme Court of the United States in INS vs. Chadha. These provisions 
include language under the headings ``United States Fish and Wildlife 
Service, Administrative Provisions,'' ``National Park Service, 
Construction,'' ``Departmental Management, Salaries and Expenses,'' 
``Natural Resources Damage Assessment and Restoration, Administrative 
Provisions,'' ``Forest Service, Wildland Fire Management,'' 
``Administrative Provisions, Forest Service,'' ``Administrative 
Provisions, Indian Health Service,'' and ``Administrative Provisions, 
Smithsonian Institution,'' as well as sections 130, 405, 421, 422, and 
435 of the Act.
    Provisions of the Act, such as language under the headings 
``National Park Service, Historic Preservation Fund,'' ``Environmental 
Protection Agency, State and Tribal Assistance Grants,'' and 
``Administrative Provisions, Smithsonian Institution,'' purport to 
require execution of the Act in consultation with congressional 
committees. The executive branch shall construe this requirement in a 
manner consistent with the Constitution's grant to the President of 
exclusive authority to faithfully execute the laws and supervise the 
unitary executive branch. Further, sections 101 and 102 purport to 
require the President to submit supplemental appropriations requests. 
The executive branch shall construe these sections in a manner 
consistent with the President's constitutional authority to recommend 
for congressional consideration such measures, including requests for 
appropriations, as he judges necessary and expedient.
    Finally, in language under the headings ``State and Tribal 
Assistance Grants,'' Environmental Protection Agency,'' and ``Department 
of Health and Human Services, Indian Health Services,'' the Act purports 
to require that certain funds be spent consistent with the joint 
explanatory statement of managers and an instruction in a Senate report. 
These documents do not satisfy the constitutional requirements of 
bicameral approval and presentment to the President needed to give them 
the force of law.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 August 2, 2005.

Note: H.R. 2361, approved August 2, was assigned Public Law No. 109-54. 
An original was not available for verification of the content of this 
statement.