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Obama Quashes Bush Signing Statements

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 9, 2009 3:41 PM CDT

(Newser) – President Obama today told government agencies to ignore George W. Bush’s signing statements, but has not sworn off the practice for his own administration, Politico reports. The statements, written when the president OKs a bill but disagrees with certain provisions, are often followed as if they were law. Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Bush’s resulted in “people disregarding portions of legislation or the intent of Congress.”

Though Obama will exercise more discretion, Gibbs said the statements are part of presidential tradition. “This president will use signing statements,” he said, “in order to go back to what has previously been done—that is to enumerate constitutional problems that either the Justice Department or legislative counsel here see as potential problems with their reading—but not ask that laws be disallowed simply by executive fiat.”

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President Barack Obama. (AP Photo)

President Barack Obama signs an executive order on stem cells and a presidential memorandum on scientific integrity. (AP Photo)

Former President George W. Bush. (AP Photo)

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Signing statements have been in existence for two centuries in order for presidents to make known Constitutional problems with ideas that are in legislation, without necessarily dealing a veto to the entire piece of legislation. - Robert Gibbs

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