[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 51 (Monday, December 25, 2006)]
[Page 2199]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the National Transportation Safety Board 
Reauthorization Act of 2006

December 21, 2006

    Today I have signed into law H.R. 5076, the ``National 
Transportation Safety Board Reauthorization Act of 2006.'' The Act 
authorizes funding for the Board and makes adjustments to its authority 
and duties.
    Section 2(a)(2) of the Act requires the Board to develop an 
operating plan for the National Transportation Safety Board Academy, 
obtain and respond to comments from a legislative agent regarding that 
plan, submit the plan to congressional committees with a description of 
modifications made in response to comments from the legislative agent, 
and then implement the plan within 2 years. The executive branch shall 
construe the provision in a manner consistent with the Constitution's 
provisions concerning the separate powers of the Congress to legislate 
and the President to execute the laws.
    The executive branch shall construe section 1113(c) of title 49, 
United States Code, as amended by section 9(f) of the Act, which relates 
to the Board's review and comment or approval of documents submitted to 
the President, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, or 
Congress, in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of 
the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and to recommend 
for the consideration of the Congress such measures as the President 
shall judge necessary and expedient.
    The executive branch shall construe section 11(c) of the Act, 
relating to executive branch reports to the Congress concerning 
investigations of alleged criminal and fraudulent activities in 
connection with a specified project, in a manner consistent with the 
constitutional authorities of the President to supervise the unitary 
executive branch and to withhold information the disclosure of which 
could impair the performance of the Executive's constitutional duties, 
including the conduct of investigations and prosecutions to take care 
that the laws be faithfully executed.
                                                George W. Bush
The White House,
December 21, 2006.

Note: H.R. 5076, approved December 21, was assigned Public Law No. 109-
443. An original was not available for verification of the content of 
this statement.