Report: Obama signs some proclamations with autopen

David Jackson | USA TODAY

President Obama appears to be expanding his use of the autopen to "sign" certain documents -- it now covers some presidential proclamations.

CBS News reports that Obama has used the autopen on at least three proclamations, including one last month designating National Park Week and two from last year on National Grandparents Day and National Days of Prayer and Remembrance.

"It's possible many more of Mr. Obama's proclamations have been signed by mechanical device and not by hand, but the White House declined to provide a document-by-document accounting, despite repeated requests by CBS News," the report says. "In general, the White House puts the autopen to work if the president is out of town or otherwise unavailable to sign the document."

Obama has signed at least five pieces of legislation using the autopen.

Critics have questioned the use of the autopen, citing the Constitution's requirement that if a president approved a bill passed by Congress "he shall sign it" -- not have a machine do it.

But a 2005 opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel -- back during the George W. Bush administration -- okays the autopen, saying that "the President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign."

Mark Knoller of CBS News, who has frequently questioned the use of the autopen, writes of last month's document:

"In the text of the proclamation, the president lays out his reasons for honoring America's parks and states 'I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of April.'

"It would have been more accurate if he said he sent the document to the autopen to have it inscribed it with a nearly identical facsimile of his signature. Admittedly, that phrasing lacks the same rhetorical flourish."