Bush Repudiation Day continued apace this afternoon, with President Obama taking aim at the former administration's signing statements, which he ordered to be ignored until they're approved by the Obama Justice Department.
The day started off with President Obama signing the executive order that rolled back restrictions on stem cell research, a complete reversal of the Bush Administration's policy. Accompanying the executive order was a Presidential Memorandum committing the Obama administration to a standard of "scientific integrity" in all its actions, in effect announcing loud and clear the depoliticizing of science and research issues, in direct contrast to the enthrallment of the Bush policies to the political arm of the GOP.
A second Presidential Memorandum was issued this afternoon that, in essence, ordered all executive agencies to ignore the Bush Administration's signing statements unless they have been reviewed and approved by the Obama Justice Department:
To ensure that all signing statements previously issued are followed only when consistent with these principles, executive branch departments and agencies are directed to seek the advice of the Attorney General before relying on signing statements issued prior to the date of this memorandum as the basis for disregarding, or otherwise refusing to comply with, any provision of a statute.
The full memorandum lays out the cases in which President Obama will avail himself of using signing statements (Surprise! the former Constitutional law professor intends to err on the side of assuming Congress knows what it's doing most of the time and he will afford the legislative branch the "presumption of constitutionality!" And if confused about intent, he will actually consult with Congress! And this chief executive will actually be specific about the statutory concern he has and which section of the Constitution he's concerned with!). In a sweet little slap at his predecessor, the Obama memorandum notes:
There is no doubt that the practice of issuing such statements can be abused. Constitutional signing statements should not be used to suggest that the President will disregard statutory requirements on the basis of policy disagreements.
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also answered some questions today from reporters before the full text of the memorandum was released, and it's clear he'd been briefed that this is, indeed, yet another roll-back of a godawful Bush Administration policy:
Q: The President apparently sent a memorandum to agencies and departments today on signing statements, and I hope you could elaborate a little bit about what he's instructing them to do. And which signing statements of President Bush is he -- does he have in mind when he says, do not necessarily take these operationally?
MR. GIBBS: Well, we will release the memorandum that the President has sent to agencies. Obviously signing statements have been in existence for two centuries in order for Presidents to make known constitutional problems with ideas that are in legislation without necessarily dealing a veto to the entire piece of legislation. Obviously the proliferation of omnibus legislation has made that even more prevalent.
I think the previous administration issued hundreds and hundreds of signing statements that specifically entailed -- and I can -- we'll certainly get you some examples -- but specifically entailed, through those signing statements, that people disregard portions of legislation or the intent of Congress.
This President will use signing statements in order to go back to what has previously been done, and that is to enumerate constitutional problems that either the Justice Department or the -- or legislative council here see as a potential problem through their reading, but not ask that laws be disallowed simply by executive fiat. I will get that --
Q: So he feels that he's going back to the original intent of --
MR. GIBBS: Back to the original intent of a signing -- of signing statements to simply enumerate for those -- like I said, what problems might be inherent in a piece of legislation, without asking that the federal government disallow or ignore congressional intent.
All hail the U.S. Constitution. It seems to be coming back to life through some vigorous resuscitation.