Anyone remember a certain Democratic Presidential candidate last fall who complained bitterly (and correctly, in my opinion) about the many “signing statments” which George W. Bush used to skirt around legislation he didn’t care for? Yeah, me too. But it seems that, having moved his own bags into the West Wing, Barack Obama thought he’d give old W. some credit and take a shot at it himself on a new bill regarding the World Bank and I.M.F.
The conditions on World Bank and IMF funding were part of the $106 billion war supplemental bill that was passed last month. Obama, in a statement made as he signed the bill, said that he would ignore the conditions.
They would “interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations by directing the Executive to take certain positions in negotiations or discussions with international organizations and foreign governments, or by requiring consultation with the Congress prior to such negotiations or discussions,” Obama said in the signing statement.
That didn’t fly, however, as Congress took a unique position in its 2009 activities and finally agreed on something.
The House rebuked President Obama for trying to ignore restrictions to international aid payments, voting overwhelmingly for an amendment forcing the administration to abide by its constraints.
House members approved an amendment by a 429-2 vote to have the Obama administration pressure the World Bank to strengthen labor and environmental standards and require a Treasury Department report on World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) activities.
This column is not meant as a comment on the bill itself. I shall leave that up to the readers to debate on their own. The point is, these signing statements were treading on dangerous ground when Bush used them, if not outright flouting the law. Obama made a stand on the campaign trail about this, and I cheered him for it at the time. I don’t know what’s happened to his memory lately, but he needs to go over his notes. Also, Congress hasn’t been able to agree on much this year, and they’ve managed very little for me to commend them, but if they can’t accomplish anything else, this is as good of a start on bipartisanship as I can think of.