For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 14, 2004
Statement by the President
Today, I have signed into law H.R. 4837, the "Military Construction
Appropriations and Emergency Hurricane Supplemental Appropriations Act,
2005." This Act provides funding for con-struction to support the
operations of the U.S. Armed Forces and for military family housing.
The Act also provides the funds I requested to help citizens in Florida
and elsewhere rebuild their lives in the aftermath of multiple
hurricanes and other natural disasters.
Sections 107, 110, 113, 118, and 303 of the Act provide for notice
to the Congress of relocation of activities between military
installations, initiation of a new installation abroad, U.S. military
exercises involving $100,000 in construction costs, specific actions to
encourage foreign nations to assume a greater share of the common
defense burden, and initiation of certain types of programs. The
Supreme Court of the United States has stated that the President's
authority to classify and control access to information bearing on
national security flows from the Constitution and does not depend upon
a legislative grant of authority. Although notice 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 while protecting sensitive national security information. The
executive branch shall construe these sections in a manner consistent
with the constitutional authority of the President.
Section 128 of the Act purports to require Department of Defense
officials to respond in writing within 21 days to any question or
inquiry from the congressional military construction appropriations
subcommittees. The executive branch shall construe section 128 in a
manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to
supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information the
disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, the national
security, the deliberative processes of the Executive, or the
performance of the Executive's constitutional duties.
The executive branch shall construe section 110(d)(2) of the Alaska
Natural Gas Pipeline Act as contained in Division C of the Act,
relating to submission of legislative recommendations, in a manner
consistent with the President's exclusive constitutional authority to
recommend for the consideration of the Congress such measures as the
President judges necessary and expedient.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
October 13, 2004.
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