Statement on Signing Legislation To Study the Feasibility of Establishing a Native American Cultural Center

Today I am signing into law H.R. 3370, an Act to direct the Secretary of the Interior to carry out a study and make recommendations to the Congress regarding the feasibility of establishing a Native American cultural center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

I am signing this bill notwithstanding a provision that purports to require the Secretary of the Interior to report the results of a certain study together with his "recommendations" to the Congress. Were this provision construed to require an executive branch officer to submit legislative recommendations to the Congress, it would be constitutionally objectionable. Because Article II, section 3 of the Constitution vests the President with exclusive authority to decide whether and when the executive branch should propose legislation, this provision will be construed as only advisory and not requiring legislative recommendations.

George Bush

The White House,

December 9, 1991.