Unitary Executive
An editorial appeared in the NY Times recently recommending: “Members of Congress have a variety of methods available to make the administration obey the law. They should call the agency heads up to Capitol Hill to explain their intransigence. And they should use the power of the purse, the authority the founders wisely vested in the people’s branch, as a check on a runaway executive branch.”
Bush has issued signing statements taking exception to hundreds of bills as he signs them into law. In many cases, he has refused to enact those laws. The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan arm of Congress found that many laws have not been implemented as required. The G.A.O. did not investigate some of Bush’s most infamous signing statements, like the challenge to a ban on torture.
In one case, Congress directed the Pentagon in its 2007 budget request to account separately for the cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was an appropriate request, but Bush issued a signing statement critical of the rule and the Pentagon withheld the information.
The Bush regimes disregard for these laws is part of its preposterous theory of the “unitary executive.” Bush claims that he has the sole authority to supervise and direct executive officers, and that Congress and the courts cannot interfere. This theory, which has no support in American history or the Constitution, is a formula for dictatorship.
Other presidents have issued signing statements, but none has issued as many, or done so with the same contemptuous attitude toward a co-equal branch of government. The G.A.O. report makes clear that Bush’s signing statements were actually written instructions to executive agencies to flout acts of Congress. The report shows that Bush keeps seeking more power and pushing Congress aside.
When Bush’s term ends, there will be a great deal of damage to repair, much of it to the Constitutional system. Congress should begin now to restore the principle that a president and the executive branch of government are not above the law. Congress must use its powers to insist that its laws are obeyed by using the power of the purse.
Bush has issued signing statements taking exception to hundreds of bills as he signs them into law. In many cases, he has refused to enact those laws. The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan arm of Congress found that many laws have not been implemented as required. The G.A.O. did not investigate some of Bush’s most infamous signing statements, like the challenge to a ban on torture.
In one case, Congress directed the Pentagon in its 2007 budget request to account separately for the cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was an appropriate request, but Bush issued a signing statement critical of the rule and the Pentagon withheld the information.
The Bush regimes disregard for these laws is part of its preposterous theory of the “unitary executive.” Bush claims that he has the sole authority to supervise and direct executive officers, and that Congress and the courts cannot interfere. This theory, which has no support in American history or the Constitution, is a formula for dictatorship.
Other presidents have issued signing statements, but none has issued as many, or done so with the same contemptuous attitude toward a co-equal branch of government. The G.A.O. report makes clear that Bush’s signing statements were actually written instructions to executive agencies to flout acts of Congress. The report shows that Bush keeps seeking more power and pushing Congress aside.
When Bush’s term ends, there will be a great deal of damage to repair, much of it to the Constitutional system. Congress should begin now to restore the principle that a president and the executive branch of government are not above the law. Congress must use its powers to insist that its laws are obeyed by using the power of the purse.
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