Home > News & Policies > October 2002

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 11, 2002

Statement by the President

I have today signed into law S. 1175, the "Vicksburg National Military Park Boundary Modification Act of 2002." In 1863, union forces under the command of Major General Ulysses S. Grant and confederate forces under the command of Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton fought for control of Vicksburg, Mississippi, a strategic location on the lower Mississippi River. The Act authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to add the confederate commander's headquarters to the Park, which has included the union commander's headquarters for many decades. The Act will enable the Department of the Interior to preserve property for the education of Americans today, and in generations to come.

The second sentence of section 3(b) of the Act reads: "Upon the acquisition of the property referenced in this subsection, the Secretary add it to Vicksburg National Military Park and shall modify the boundaries of the park to reflect its inclusion." It is plain in reading the sentence that a word is missing between the words "Secretary" and "add."

In accordance with section 106 of title 1 of the United States Code, enrolled bill S. 1175 was presented to me bearing the signatures of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate, which attests that both Houses passed the bill. In accordance with the principles enunciated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Marshall Field & Co. v. Clark in 1892, I take the bill presented as being duly enrolled and shall not turn to the journals of either House, the reports of congressional committees, or other documents printed by the authority of Congress in an effort to determine whether an error in the enrollment of S. 1175 has occurred.

Recognizing that the second half of the sentence in issue provides that the Secretary "shall" modify park boundaries to reflect inclusion of the property in the Park, the most reasonable construction of the first half of the sentence is that, after the Secretary of the Interior acquires the property, addition of the property to the Park by the Secretary is mandatory. Accordingly, the executive branch shall implement the second sentence of section 3(b) of the Act in the same way it would implement the Act if the word "shall" appeared in that sentence between the words "Secretary" and "add." This construction is faithful to the legislative intent as evidenced by the content of the statute itself.

GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
October 11, 2002.

# # #