OTHER OPINIONS : Signing statements should be shelved

By Houston Chronicle

Posted: August 20, 2009 at 6:20 a.m.

• Print item
• E-mail
• Share
• Tweet

HOUSTON — Signing statements are back in the news.

President Barack Obama is using them to avoid complying with provisions of new laws crossing his desk with which he disagrees, and some Democrats don't like that one bit, either.

They're particularly annoyed that their own president is doing it.

A recent president of the American Bar Association, H. Thomas Wells, shares their dismay. The ABA condemned signing statements in 2006 when Bush used them.

Signing statements were the creation of lawyers in the Clinton administration to avoid having to veto bills because a president might have relatively small problems with parts of them. :

So far, the president has used them on a bill that tied funding for theWorld Bank with agreement that the administration would press the bank to comply with certain policies. Signing statements also have been used by Obama to declare that he does not have to agree to limits on who he may appoint to a commission, or to comply with restrictions limiting the number of U.S. troops placed under U.N. command.

One of Obama's obvious PR problems is that he was a critic of Bush's use of the practice. In the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama said using them was an "abuse."

He was right the first time.

They are. : - Houston Chronicle

Opinion, Pages 4 on 08/20/2009

Comments

To report abuse or misuse of this area please hit the "Suggest Removal" link in the comment to alert our online managers. Please read our comment policy.

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.