[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 40 (Monday, October 9, 2006)]
[Pages 1703-1704]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2007

September 29, 2006

    Today, I have signed into law H.R. 5631, the ``Department of Defense 
Appropriations Act, 2007.'' The Act appropriates the funds needed to 
fight the war on terror, advance other United States interests around 
the world, and support our Armed Forces. The Act also continues funding 
for Government programs for which the Congress has not yet enacted 
regular appropriations acts.
    Sections 8007, 8084, and 9005 of the Act prohibit the use of funds 
to initiate a special access program or a new start program, unless the 
congressional defense committees receive advance notice. The Supreme 
Court of the United States has stated that the President's authority to 
classify and control access to information bearing on the national 
security flows from the Constitution and does not depend upon a 
legislative grant of authority. Although the advance notice contemplated 
by sections 8007, 8084, and 9005 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 Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces 
while protecting certain extraordinarily sensitive national security 
information. The executive branch shall construe these sections in a 
manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President.
    Section 8050 of the Act provides that, notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, no funds available to the Department of Defense for 
fiscal year 2007 may be used to transfer defense articles or services, 
other than intelligence services, to another nation or an international 
organization for international peacekeeping, peace enforcement, or 
humanitarian assistance operations, until 15 days after the executive 
branch notifies six committees of the Congress of the planned transfer. 
To the extent that protection of the U.S. Armed Forces deployed for 
international peacekeeping, peace enforcement, or humanitarian 
assistance operations might require action of a kind covered by section 
8050 sooner than 15 days after notification, the executive branch shall 
construe the section in a manner consistent with the President's 
constitutional authority as Commander in Chief.

    A proviso in the Act's appropriation for ``Operation and 
Maintenance, Defense-Wide'' purports to prohibit planning for 
consolidation of certain offices within the Department of Defense. Also, 
sections 8010(b), 8032(b), and 8089 purport to specify the content of 
portions of future budget requests to the Congress. The executive branch 
shall construe these provisions relating to planning and making of 
budget recommendations in a manner consistent with the President's 
constitutional authority to require the opinions of the heads of 
departments, to supervise the unitary executive branch, and to recommend 
for congressional consideration such measures as the President shall 
judge necessary and expedient.

    Section 8005 of the Act, relating to requests to congressional 
committees for reprogramming of funds, shall be construed as calling 
solely for notification, as any other construction would be inconsistent 
with the constitutional principles enunciated by the Supreme Court of 
the United States in INS v. Chadha.

    The executive branch shall construe section 8093, relating to 
integration of foreign intelligence information, in a manner consistent 
with the President's constitutional authority as Commander in Chief, 
including for the conduct of intelligence operations, and to supervise 
the unitary executive branch.

[[Page 1704]]

Also, the executive branch shall construe sections 8095 and 8101 of the 
Act, which purport to prohibit the President from altering command and 
control relationships within the Armed Forces, as advisory, as any other 
construction would be inconsistent with the constitutional grant to the 
President of the authority of Commander in Chief.
    The executive branch shall construe provisions of the Act relating 
to race, ethnicity, gender, and State residency, such as sections 8013, 
8018 and 8048, in a manner consistent with the requirement to afford 
equal protection of the laws under the Due Process Clause of the 
Constitution's Fifth Amendment.
    Sections 8039 and 8064 of the Act purport to allocate funds for 
specified purposes as set forth in the joint explanatory statement of 
managers that accompanied the Act and to direct compliance with a 
classified annex which was not incorporated into the Act and for which 
presentment was not made. The executive branch shall construe all these 
provisions in a manner consistent with the bicameral passage and 
presentment requirements of the Constitution for the making of a law.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 September 29, 2006.

Note: H.R. 5631, approved September 29, was assigned Public Law No. 109-
289. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.