Sunday, May 6, 2007
Nancy Pelosi Threatens to Sue Bush
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is threatening to sue President Bush if he issues a signing statement as a way of circumventing a compromise Iraq war spending bill.
"The president has made excessive use of signing statements and Congress is considering ways to respond to this executive-branch overreaching,” Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said.
"Whether through the oversight or appropriations process or by enacting new legislation, the Democratic Congress will challenge the president’s non-enforcement of the laws.”
A signing statement is a written pronouncement by the president upon signing a bill into law. Often its purpose is to assert that the law is constitutionally defective and to guide federal agencies in limiting its implementation.
Pelosi recently told a group of liberal bloggers, "We can take the president to court” if he issues a signing statement on the spending bill, the Washington, D.C.-based publication The Hill reported.
But Bush wrote last week in vetoing spending legislation that called for a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq: "This legislation is unconstitutional because it purports to direct the conduct of operations of the war in a way that infringes upon the powers vested in the presidency.”
In the past, lawmakers have tried to sue presidents for taking what they consider illegal military action, according to The Hill, but courts have rejected such suits.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is threatening to sue President Bush if he issues a signing statement as a way of circumventing a compromise Iraq war spending bill.
"The president has made excessive use of signing statements and Congress is considering ways to respond to this executive-branch overreaching,” Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said.
"Whether through the oversight or appropriations process or by enacting new legislation, the Democratic Congress will challenge the president’s non-enforcement of the laws.”
A signing statement is a written pronouncement by the president upon signing a bill into law. Often its purpose is to assert that the law is constitutionally defective and to guide federal agencies in limiting its implementation.
Pelosi recently told a group of liberal bloggers, "We can take the president to court” if he issues a signing statement on the spending bill, the Washington, D.C.-based publication The Hill reported.
But Bush wrote last week in vetoing spending legislation that called for a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq: "This legislation is unconstitutional because it purports to direct the conduct of operations of the war in a way that infringes upon the powers vested in the presidency.”
In the past, lawmakers have tried to sue presidents for taking what they consider illegal military action, according to The Hill, but courts have rejected such suits.
