In a Washington Post article President Obama said that he would only issue signing statements to "address constitutional concerns." Apparently Bush had a tendency to use these statements to make changes to the intentions of bills as he signed them into law. What a sneaky way to get around the intent of the bill! Another example of his blatant abuse of power!
Of course there are those criticizing Obama for not completely doing away with the practice. The ACLU in articular says that these statements can be used in an abuse of presidential authority to change the meaning of legislation that they don't like instead of the intended purpose of providing guidance. Obama promised to use the signing statements sparingly, but only time will tell and you can be sure people will be watching and taking note.
"Policy is baloney"
15 years ago
I was going to blog about this but I noticed you already have so I'm just going to leave a comment. The way this was reported in the NY Times, Obama will only use signing statements if Congress sends him legislation he "decides" is unconstitutional. Umm...isn't that the job of the JUDICIAL branch? I think so, and so does Arlen Specter who called signing statements "a disregard for the separation of powers and co-equal branches of government."
ReplyDeleteMelissa, you're definitely right that people will be watching, at the very least, us!