[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 2 (Monday, January 16, 2006)]
[Pages 23-24]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 
Year 2006

January 6, 2006

    Today, I have signed into law H.R. 1815, the ``National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006.'' The Act authorizes funding for 
the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, for military 
construction, and for national security-related energy programs.
    Several provisions of the Act, including sections 352, 360, 403, 
562, 818, and 2822, call for executive branch officials to submit to the 
Congress proposals for legislation, including budget proposals for 
enactment of appropriations, or purport to regulate or require 
disclosure of the manner in which the President formulates 
recommendations to the Congress for legislation. The executive branch 
shall implement 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. Also, the 
executive branch shall construe section 1206(d) of the Act, which 
purports to regulate formulation by executive branch officials of 
proposed programs for the President to direct, in a manner consistent 
with the President's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary 
executive branch and to require the opinions of heads of executive 
departments. In addition, the executive branch shall construe section 
1513(d) of the Act, which purports to make consultation with specified 
Members of Congress a precondition to the execution of the law, as 
calling for but not mandating such consultation, as is consistent with 
the Constitution's provisions concerning the separate powers of the 
Congress to legislate and the President to execute the laws.
    A number of provisions of the Act, including sections 905, 932, 
1004, 1212, 1224, 1227, and 1304, call for the executive branch to 
furnish information to the Congress on various subjects. The executive 
branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the 
President's constitutional authority to withhold information the 
disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, national security, 
the deliberative processes of the Executive, or the performance of the 
Executive's constitutional duties.
    Section 1222 of the Act refers to a joint explanatory statement of a 
committee of conference on a bill as if the statement had the force of 
law. The executive branch shall construe the provision in a manner 
consistent with the bicameral passage and presentment requirements of 
the Constitution for the making of a law.
    The provisions in Title XIV in Division A of the Act are identical, 
except for a punctuation change in section 1405(b)(1)(B) and revisions 
in section 1406, to the corresponding provisions in Title X of Division 
A of the Department of Defense, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations to 
Address Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and Pandemic Influenza Act, 
2006 (H.R. 2863 of the 109th Congress) (Public Law 109-148). The 
statement I issued upon signing H.R. 2863 into law on December 30, 2005, 
is incorporated herein by reference insofar as that statement referred 
to Title X of Division A of that Act.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 January 6, 2006.

Note: H.R. 1815, approved January 6, was assigned Public Law No. 109-
163. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.

[[Page 24]]