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House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. has released a nearly-500 page report documenting numerous alleged abuses and excesses of the Bush administration.
The report, "Reining in the Imperial Presidency: Lessons and Recommendations Relating to the Presidency of George W. Bush," contains 47 separate recommendations designed to restore the traditional checks and balances of the constitutional system.
Christopher Kelley, Miami University visiting assistant professor of political science, is noted in the report in a section on the Bush Administration's use of signing statements.
"According to signing statement expert Professor Christopher Kelley, as of January 12, 2007, President Bush had issed 150 signing statements challenging 1,149 provisions of law," the report states on page 187. The report footnotes Kelley's Web page available at www.users.muohio.edu/kelleycs.
Kelley says the signing statements challenge provisions of bills the president signs into law with caveats that allow the president to construe or excise those provisions that he deems constitutionally defective. His 2003 doctoral dissertation at Miami provided the first systematic examination of what the signing statement is, how it is used, and why it has become important to the executive branch in the past 30 years.
President Reagan adopted the signing statement strategy and challenged 95 provisions of the law, President H.W. Bush used signing statements to challenge 232 provisions of the law, and President Clinton used the strategy to challenge 140 provisions of the law, according to Kelley's count. Kelley notes that President George W. Bush has used signing statements to challenge provisions of law more than all the U.S. presidents before him.
The full House Judiciary Committee report can be found at judiciary.house.gov/hearings/printers/110th/IPres090113.pdf.
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