Obama To Curb Bush Signing Statements

~

President Barack Obama issued a memo Monday instructing executive-branch officials to ignore the previous administration's signing statements, which are written assertions presidents sometimes make when signing bills that raise constitutional questions.

At the same time, Obama cited the guidelines he would follow in issuing his own signing statements. He signaled that he would not use them to do end runs around Congress.

According to one count, President George W. Bush issued 161 signing statements in which he cast doubt on more than 1,000 provisions in legislation and essentially stated his intention to ignore those parts of the law.

President Bill Clinton issued significantly more signing statements, but Bush was more aggressive in making claims that the legislation in question would undermine presidential authority.

~