For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 14, 2002
President Signs Export-Import Bank Act
Statement by the President
I have today signed into law S. 1372, the Export-Import Bank
Reauthorization Act of 2002. This legislation will ensure the
continued effective operation of the Export-Import Bank, which helps
advance U.S. trade policy, facilitate the sale of U.S. goods and
services abroad, and create jobs here at home.
The executive branch shall carry out section 7(b) of the bill,
which relates to certain small businesses, in a manner consistent with
the requirements of equal protection under the Due Process Clause of
the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
Subsections 10(a) and 10(b)(2) of the bill purport to require the
Secretary of the Treasury to negotiate with foreign countries and
international organizations to achieve particular purposes and to
require the Secretary to submit a report to congressional committees on
the contents of negotiations and certain related executive
deliberations. These provisions interfere with the President's
constitutional authority to conduct the Nation's foreign affairs,
supervise the unitary executive branch, and 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. Accordingly, the
executive branch shall construe these provisions as precatory rather
than mandatory.
The executive branch shall construe the reference to the "Universal
Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General
Assembly on December 10, 1948," added to section 2(b)(1)(B) of the
Export-Import Bank Act by section 15 of the bill, as only providing
examples of types of human rights that the President may wish to
consider in making a determination under section 2(b)(1)(B) and not as
giving the Universal Declaration the force of U.S. law.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
June 14, 2002.
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