Presidential Signing Statements: Agency Implementation of Selected Provisions of Law

Both Republican and Democratic Presidents have issued signing statements since the early nineteenth century. Signing statements usually take the form of a presidential statement or press release issued in connection with the President's signing of a bill. Some signing statements praise the newly signed law and those involved in its passage. In other signing statements, Presidents have offered their interpretation of or explained how agencies will execute a new law. Presidents have also raised constitutional concerns or objections to new statutes in signing statements. The Chairmen of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the House Judiciary Committee asked us to examine the fiscal year 2006 appropriations acts and the President's accompanying signing statements to identify the provisions in the acts to which the President took exception, to identify the presidential concern, and to determine how the agencies executed those provisions. We also examined how the federal courts have treated presidential signing statements in their published opinions. In a second request, the same requestors asked us to examine an additional 10 provisions to determine how the agencies were executing them. Based on this work, the Subcommittee invited GAO's General Counsel to testify on the use of signing statements.