Signing Statements, Executive orders,
Executive Agreements
• Signing statements:
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http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/signingstatements.php#axzz2Ioqwmncb
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/signingstatements.php
– Signing statement is a pres. comment about
legislation. It may support the legislation- (Clinton’s
support of Family Leave Act Feb 5 1993)
– “More boldly still, the President may declare in a
signing statement that a provision of the bill before
him is flatly unconstitutional, and that he will refuse
to enforce it.”.(Pres Bush Jan 28, 2008)
– Pres Bush 1st term had 505 const. challenges to
laws http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20060113.html
Executive Order
• List of EOs http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php
• A rule or regulation issued by the president that has the
effect of law. All executive orders must be published in
the Federal Register.
https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/search?conditions%5Btype%5D=PRESDOCU&order=newest
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Exec. Orders can be regulations or rules
See page 335 Congress and its Members
Federal register # of pages
1940
5,307
1980
87,012
2000
83,293,
2002
80,332
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard Nixon
Gerald R. Ford
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
George Bush
William J. Clinton
George W. Bush
Barack Obama
3,522
907
484
214
325
346
169
320
381
166
364
291
144
Examples:
C:\My Documents\AP Gov Presidency\executive order Clinton.htm
• Presidents can reverse orders from previous
presidents. Reagan used executive order to stop
federal funding of fetal tissue research and to
end federal funding for any groups providing
abortion counseling. Clinton reversed the order
and George W. reversed Clinton’s reversal.
Obama reversed W’s reverse reversal
Executive Orders
• President Truman ‘s order to desegregate military is a bold
example
– http://www.trumanlibrary.org/9981.htm
• Obama closed Gitmo within a year
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7845585.stm
– His aides are barred from lobbying any executive agency for the life of the
Obama administration. That means an appointee who leaves the White
House in, say, 2010 would be barred from lobbying the executive branch
until 2017 if Obama were to serve two terms. LA Times Jan 22
• Executive privilege: An assertion of presidential power
that reasons that the president can withhold information
requested by the courts in matters relating to his office
– United States v Nixon 1974 Supreme Court ruled that there is
no constitutional absolute executive privilege that would allow
a president to refuse to comply with a court order to produce
information needed in a criminal trial
• The result was that Nixon had to turn over documents an tapes
http://www.landmarkcases.org/nixon/home.html
Executive Agreements Sabato 288
• Formal government agreement entered into by the pres. That
does NOT require Senate “advice and consent” of the Senate
– Treaty vs exec agreement: http://www.state.gov/s/l/treaty/faqs/70133.htm
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Often these are secret or highly sensitive
NOT binding to subsequent administrations
NAFTA
historic international pacts through the channel of executive
agreements, among them, the destroyer-base deal with Great
Britain in 1940, the Yalta and Potsdam agreements of 1945, the
Vietnam peace agreement of 1973, and the Sinai agreements of
1975.