Obama Orders Review of Executive Signing Statements

Yesterday brought more news that the Obama administration is working towards making the government more accountable. Echoing POGO's recommendations for the next administration, President Obama issued a memo yesterday to the heads of executive departments and agencies directing them to seek the advice of the Attorney General before applying previously issued signing statements to enforcing existing statutes.

As we point out in our recommendation, when the President disagrees with a law, the legitimate tool for expressing this disagreement is a veto, not an executive signing statement that cannot be overridden by Congress. Charlie Savage wrote an excellent Pulitzer-prize winning series when he was at the Boston Globe about the use and abuse of executive signing statements, and POGO has also pointed to specific instances of this abuse, including President Bush utilizing an executive signing statement to make optional provisions in the FY 2008 Defense Authorization Bill to establish an independent, bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting (fortunately, the government opted in on this provision) and to extend whistleblower protections to employees of defense contractors.

In short, this memo is great news.

-- Mandy Smithberger

UPDATE: President Obama issued his first signing statement today, suggesting that agencies should treat the opinions of Congressional committees as advisory when they spend or reallocate the omnibus spending funds. Well, he didn't say he wasn't going to use signing statements at all (and as Chris Good points out, he did mention that omnibus spending is why signing statements can be useful).

Comments

[Axel]

Is it correct that the signing statement is related to Defense and/or Military Spending ans would therefore include the 60,000 thousand plus people that continur to this day to be tortured on our US Shipd and/other Ships and elswhere and including illegal and/or secret detentions and renditions and including the continued legal and/or illegal secrecy, etcetra and other equally hedios and henienous programs etcetra and including the enactment of the death penalty etcetra and without the seemingly US Constitutional mandated False Claims Act, Habeas Corpus and withour the seemingly US Constitutional 'FEDERAL EMPLOYEE WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION RESTORATION ENHANCEMENT ACT.

[Axel]

Dear Readers, 3/10/2009

Hopefully POGO will also post my previous blog comment reply from the previous POGO Article 'Mark Your Calenders' as I presume it will give substantial assistance to this seemingly highly significant and important POGO Article.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Axel
Axel V. Sabersky

It would presumably and/or certainly appear to be expected, correct and seemingly of logical sense and of sound Principle and Ethics that our US Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches of our US Government would and should not present and/or sign a Bill and/or allow into Law that appears unconstitutional and as I presume a reasonable person would concur.

As a layman response to the Presidential memorandum I very briefly read;

Where was//is and since the expressed (Abraham Linclon//False Claims Act etcetra) Constitutional public and innate

Presidential??!! and seemingly

Congressional??!!

concern and as seemingly expressed in conjuction with this Memorandum and when at the last minute the Platts//Van Hollen 'FEDERAL EMPLOYEE WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION ENHANCEMENT RESTORATION ACT' was somehow??!! removed!!!! from the recent so-called Stimilus Bill and seemingly from these exact same Presidential and Congressional Leaders!!!!