Statement on Signing the Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2002

I have today signed into law S. 1372, the Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2002. This legislation will ensure the continued effective operation of the Export-Import Bank, which helps advance U.S. trade policy, facilitate the sale of U.S. goods and services abroad, and create jobs here at home.

The executive branch shall carry out section 7(b) of the bill, which relates to certain small businesses, in a manner consistent with the requirements of equal protection under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

Subsections 10(a) and 10(b)(2) of the bill purport to require the Secretary of the Treasury to negotiate with foreign countries and international organizations to achieve particular purposes and to require the Secretary to submit a report to congressional committees on the contents of negotiations and certain related executive deliberations. These provisions interfere with the President's constitutional authority to conduct the Nation's foreign affairs, supervise the unitary executive branch, and withhold information the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, the national security, the deliberative processes of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties. Accordingly, the executive branch shall construe these provisions as precatory rather than mandatory.

The executive branch shall construe the reference to the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948," added to section 2(b)(1)(B) of the Export-Import Bank Act by section 15 of the bill, as only providing examples of types of human rights that the President may wish to consider in making a determination under section 2(b)(1)(B) and not as giving the Universal Declaration the force of U.S. law.

GEORGE W. BUSH

The White House, June 14, 2002.