For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 23, 2002
Statement by the President
I have signed into law H.R. 2068, a bill "to revise, codify, and enact
without substantive change certain general and permanent laws, related
to public buildings, property, and works, as title 40, United States
Code, 'Public Buildings, Property, and Works'." This measure is the
latest in a series that is intended to enact all titles of the United
States Code into positive law.
In approving this bill, I note that section 312(b)(2), concerning
cert in transfers of funds for equipment purchases, and section
3305(a)(3), concerning the use of land as a site for a public building,
state that the executive branch may take action only after receiving
the approval of certain committees of Congress. The constitutional
requirement of bicameralism and presentment is infringed whenever a
single house, committee, or agent of Congress attempts to direct the
execution of the laws or to promulgate rules or standards intended to
bind the actions of executive or administrative officials that have not
been approved by both houses and presented to the President. INS v.
Chadha, 462 U.S. 919, 958 59 (1983). The executive branch will
therefore interpret these and similar provisions to require advance
notification only, since any other interpretation would contradict the
Supreme Court's ruling in INS v. Chadha.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
August 23, 2002.
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