Thursday, December 21, 2006

Busy in the bunker

On a day which had included a nod to "bipartisanship," George Bush had a few early Christmas presents for the opposition: through 2 more signing statements, he indicated which sections he won't be obeying of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act and the Tax Relief and Health Care Act bills that he had just signed, and he recess appointed (i.e. without Senate approval) conservative writer Warren Bell to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Republican strategist Mark McKinnon to the board of the (Public) Broadcasting Board of Governors (update January: Bush is now seeking to regularise these nominations in the Democratic Senate).

UPDATE: Another signing statement on Thursday, explaining which parts of the National Transportation Safety Board Reauthorization Act of 2006 that he won't be obeying. In particular --

The executive branch shall construe section 11(c) of the Act, relating to executive branch reports to the Congress concerning investigations of alleged criminal and fraudulent activities in connection with a specified project, in a manner consistent with the constitutional authorities of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information the disclosure of which could impair the performance of the Executive's constitutional duties, including the conduct of investigations and prosecutions to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

The text of said Act requires investigations and reporting related to "Central Artery tunnel project in Boston, Massachusetts" i.e. the Big Dig. In other words, Congress, a co-equal branch of government, is told that it has no interest in figuring out what went wrong with the project.

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