Signing Statement Allows Cronyism to Thrive at FEMA

by TChris

The Constitution empowers the president to veto bills that the legislature enacts. It does not authorize the president to rewrite legislation. Untroubled by constitutional or legislative limits on executive power, President Bush again used a signing statement to explain his anticipated disobedience of the proposed law that Congress sent him.

The statement repeatedly asserts that Homeland Security Appropriations Act "purports to" do certain things. It "purport[s] to require congressional committee approval for the execution of a law." It "purports to direct the conduct of security and suitability investigations." It "vests in the President authority to appoint the Administrator, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, but purports to limit the qualifications of the pool of persons from whom the President may select the appointee ..." The president claims that Congress can do none of these things.

Congress did not "purport" to do these things; Congress did them. If the president thought Congress passed an unconstitutional bill, he should have vetoed it. Can our strict constructionist president point to the constitutional language that permits him to ignore limits that Congress places on the executive powers that it enacts, or to deprive Congress of an oversight role in a law's implementation?

Charlie Savage at the Boston Globe explains how the president's power grab works to the detriment of FEMA, and of good government: