Finally the President issued a signing statement, the first in relation to a bill passed by the new, Democratically-controlled Congress. The signing statement is largely rhetorical with no substantive challenges, a rarity for this President. It is rhetorical because the president spends time criticizing Congress for not getting him important bills yet--the same challenge he issued yesterday during his brief press conference.
There have been some who have suggested that the reason that the President has not issued a signing statement challenging provisions of the bill is because the Democrats are in control and watchful of what he is doing. The larger theoretical literature on unilateral action suggests that the president is not likely to rankle the ire of Congress when it is collectively united behind a particular position. Thus previous presidents have been mindful of just how far they could push the signing statement, always approaching that threshold without stepping over it. The fact that this President could issue so many in the last several years of his presidency is because the Republican-controlled Congress didn't mind the challenges, which is largely true.
But the reason why President Bush has not issued a signing statement challenging the constitutionality of provisions of the bill he has just signed is because he has not been given any substantive bill yet. Nearly all the bills the President has received are renaming post offices or court houses (one court house in Missouri has been renamed in honor of Rush Limbaugh). Generally speaking, most of the significant signing statements for this president or any president coming between August and October, as the appropriations bills begin to reach the president's desk. So be on the look out--the challenges are coming!
