Two lawmakers demand Bush obey laws

WASHINGTON -- Two senior Democratic House members yesterday demanded that President Bush withdraw his assertion that he can ignore portions of the USA Patriot Act calling on him to provide periodic reports to Congress on how new law-enforcement tactics are being used.

Representatives Jane Harman of California and John Conyers of Michigan -- the ranking Democrats on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, respectively -- sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking that Bush follow the law.

''We ask that the administration immediately rescind this statement and abide by the law," the lawmakers wrote. ''Many members who supported the final law did so based upon the guarantee of additional reporting and oversight. The administration cannot, after the fact, unilaterally repeal provisions of the law implementing such oversight."

After some lawmakers raised concerns that the Patriot Act may pose a threat to civil liberties, Congress added a series of new oversight provisions to it. The law requires the Justice Department to keep track of how the FBI is using its expanded powers to monitor suspects and seize papers during counterterrorism investigations. The law required the administration to give Congress that information by certain dates.

But after Bush signed the Patriot Act reauthorization on March 9, he issued a signing statement -- an official document in which a president lays out his understanding of the law -- asserting that he had the authority to withhold the information from Congress if he decided that disclosing it would interfere with foreign relations, national security, or executive branch operations.

The signing statement, which went largely unnoted until The Boston Globe wrote about it last week, echoed a similar dispute three months ago when Congress passed a bill outlawing the torture of any detainee in US custody. Bush signed the antitorture law, but he also issued a statement asserting that he had the power, as commander in chief, to bypass the law if he decided that using aggressive interrogation techniques was necessary to protect national security.

While previous presidents occasionally issued signing statements, Bush has done so more often, legal scholars say. The Bush White House has issued more than 100 signing statements that called into question more than 500 provisions of new laws. But unlike other presidents, Bush has never vetoed a bill.

Yesterday, Harman and Conyers accused Bush of circumventing the lawmaking process.

''The time to raise objections to laws Congress is [considering is] while they are pending," they wrote. ''Once the president signs a bill, he and all of us are bound by it."

Said Brian Roehrkasse, a Gonzales spokesman: ''Signing statements have been used for several administrations and this is very standard language that makes clear that the president will faithfully execute the law in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution."