Including a signing statement with the fraud enforcement act
While signing the "Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009," President Obama included a signing statement to protect executive priviledge — a tactic used by President Bush that candidate Obama said was unconstitutional.
President Obama, yet again, issued a signing statement announcing his intent to interpret a law passed by Congress in his own way.
This time it’s the “Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009,” and the president wants to keep his right to executive priviledge. From the White House:
Section 5(d) of the Act requires every department, agency, bureau, board, commission, office, independent establishment, or instrumentality of the United States to furnish to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a legislative entity, any information related to any Commission inquiry. As my Administration communicated to the Congress during the legislative process, the executive branch will construe this subsection of the bill not to abrogate any constitutional privilege.
There’s really no need for the statement, but the president issued it anyway. If Congress passes something that isn’t constitutional, the president is obligated not to enforce it.
But we have to remember that the president, as a candidate in May 2008, said signing statements were themselves unconstitutional.
Congress’s job is to pass legislation. The president can veto it or he can sign it.
But what George Bush has been trying to do as part of his effort to accumulate more power in the presidency is he’s been saying, “Well, I can basically change what congress passed by attaching a letter saying ‘I agree with this part or I don’t agree with this part I’m gonna choose to interpret it this way or that way’”
That’s not part of his power. But this is part of the whole theory of George Bush — that he can make laws as he’s going along.
I disagree with that. I taught the Constitution for 10 years, I believe in the Constitution and I will obey the Constitution of the United States.
We’re not going to use signing statements as way of doing an end run around Congress, alright?
Sources:
The White House, May 20, 2009
The White House Blog, May 20, 2009
