Bush Thumbs His Nose At Oversight In Patriot Act

In another nose-thumbing at the U.S. Constitution and Congress, President Bush wrote another love note to Congress and the American people on the Patriot Act when he signed the latest version on March 9th. He wants to make sure that everyone knows that he doesn’t have to answer to anyone no matter what the law. What happened to checks and balances?

WASHINGTON — When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act’s expanded police powers.

The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, the administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates.

[…]

Past presidents occasionally used such signing statements to describe their interpretations of laws, but Bush has expanded the practice. He has also been more assertive in claiming the authority to override provisions he thinks intrude on his power, legal scholars said.

Bush’s expansive claims of the power to bypass laws have provoked increased grumbling in Congress. Members of both parties have pointed out that the Constitution gives the legislative branch the power to write the laws and the executive branch the duty to ”faithfully execute” them.

[…]

Bush’s signing statement on the USA Patriot Act nearly went unnoticed.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, inserted a statement into the record of the Senate Judiciary Committee objecting to Bush’s interpretation of the Patriot Act, but neither the signing statement nor Leahy’s objection received coverage from in the mainstream news media, Leahy’s office said.

Yesterday, Leahy said Bush’s assertion that he could ignore the new provisions of the Patriot Act — provisions that were the subject of intense negotiations in Congress — represented ”nothing short of a radical effort to manipulate the constitutional separation of powers and evade accountability and responsibility for following the law.”

[…]

David Golove, a New York University law professor who specializes in executive power issues, said the statement may simply be ”bluster” and does not necessarily mean that the administration will conceal information about its use of the Patriot Act.

But, he said, the statement illustrates the administration’s ”mind-bogglingly expansive conception” of executive power, and its low regard for legislative power.

‘‘On the one hand, they deny that Congress even has the authority to pass laws on these subjects like torture and eavesdropping, and in addition to that, they say that Congress is not even entitled to get information about anything to do with the war on terrorism,” Golove said. [“Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement” (Boston Globe)]

(Emphasis placed by myself.)

Hat tip to Tennessee Guerilla Women.

tags: George W. Bush, Patriot Act, Boston Globe, The U.S. Constitution, Congress, Conspiracy Theories

One comment

1. on March 24, 2006 at 8:41 pm

   Big Dog said:

   I don’t know what news Leaky Leahy watches but I have known about this since the Act was signed.

   I also think I heard Rusn mention it.

   Of course maybe Leahy was busy leaking national secrets again.

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