Statement on Signing the
Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, Fiscal Year
1989
I
have today signed H.R. 4867, the Department of the Interior and Related
Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 1989. The Act provides necessary
funds to manage the natural resources under Federal stewardship, to assist
Native Americans, to support cultural institutions, and to assist the Nation's
territories and possessions. This is the fifth appropriations bill enacted for
the Fiscal Year that begins on October 1.
Although
on balance the Act merited my approval, the Congress has not demonstrated the
fiscal responsibility with this Act that it exercised with the previous four
appropriations Acts for the coming fiscal year. This Act appropriates $680
million more than I requested and brings the Nation $198 million closer to a
Federal budget sequestration under the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings law. This
congressional overspending cannot continue if the Nation is to avoid the
uniform, across-the-board cuts that a sequestration inflicts equally on lower
priority programs and on the high priority programs upon which many Americans
depend.
I
urge the Congress to act swiftly to send me the remainder of the Fiscal Year
1989 appropriations bills -- on time and on budget.
The
Congress included in H.R. 4867 another extension of the moratorium on granting
oil and gas leases for certain areas of the Outer Continental Shelf. The
Congress increased the damaging effect of the moratorium by extending it to
apply to grants of permits for drilling and exploration activities under leases
already granted. For the Congress to prohibit the issuance of such permits to
those who already had obtained leases is unfair.
Many
provisions of H.R. 4867 reflect a growing and disturbing trend on the part of
the Congress to include unconstitutional committee approval or veto
requirements in appropriations bills. This Act includes, for example,
provisions purporting to require the approval of congressional committees for
(1) changes in Forest Service regional boundaries, or movement or closure of
regional offices, (2) changes in the Forest Service appropriations structure,
(3) reduction of personnel in the Indian Health Service, and (4) assessments
against certain programs and activities.
In
granting authority or making appropriations by law, the Congress may not
reserve to its committees approval or veto power over the exercise of that
authority or the expenditure of those appropriations. The reservation of such
power to congressional committees clearly conflicts with the constitutional
principles the Supreme Court enunciated in INS v. Chadha,
462 U.S. 919 (1983). The Executive branch will continue to provide committees
the notification and full consultation that interbranch
comity requires in matters in which the Congress has indicated such a special
interest.
Finally,
two provisions of the Act purport to require the Executive branch to submit
requests for supplemental appropriations to replenish certain expended
Department of Interior funds. The Constitution grants exclusively to the
President the power to recommend to the consideration of the Congress such
measures as he judges necessary and expedient. Because the Congress may not by
law command the President to exercise in particular circumstances the power that
the Constitution commits to his judgment of necessity and expedience, such
provisions have been consistently treated as advisory, not mandatory.
Ronald
Reagan
The
White House,
Note: H.R. 4867,
approved September 27, was assigned Public Law No. 100 - 446.