[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 28 (Thursday, February 11, 1999)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 6779-6780]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-3504]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 28 / Thursday, February 11, 1999 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 6779]]
Presidential Determination No. 99-12 of February 3,
1999
Vietnamese Cooperation in Accounting for United
States
Prisoners of War and Missing in Action (POW/MIA)
Memorandum for the Secretary of State
As provided under section 609 of the Departments of
Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1999, as contained
in the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental
Appropriations Act, 1999, Public Law 105-277, I hereby
determine, based on all information available to the
United States Government, that the Government of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam is fully cooperating in
good faith with the United States in the following four
areas related to achieving the fullest possible
accounting for Americans unaccounted for as a result of
the Vietnam War:
1) resolving discrepancy cases, live sightings, and
field activities;
2) recovering and repatriating American remains;
3) accelerating efforts to provide documents that
will help lead to the fullest possible accounting
of POW/MIAs; and,
4) providing further assistance in implementing
trilateral investigations with Laos.
I further determine that the appropriate laboratories
associated with POW/MIA accounting are thoroughly
analyzing remains, material, and other information and
fulfilling their responsibilities as set forth in
subsection (B) of section 609, and information
pertaining to this accounting is being made available
to immediate family members in compliance with 50
U.S.C. 435 note.
I have been advised by the Department of Justice that
section 609 is unconstitutional because it purports to
use a condition on appropriations as a means to direct
my execution of responsibilities that the Constitution
commits exclusively to the President. I am providing
this determination as a matter of comity with the
Congress, while reserving the position that the
condition enacted in section 609 is unconstitutional.
In making this determination, I have taken into account
all information available to the United States
Government as reported to me, including the full range
of ongoing accounting activities in Vietnam, joint and
unilateral Vietnamese efforts, and the concrete results
we have attained as a result of these efforts.
Finally, in making this determination, I wish to
reaffirm my continuing personal commitment to the
entire POW/MIA community, especially to the immediate
families, relatives, friends, and supporters of these
brave individuals, and to reconfirm that the central,
guiding principle of my Vietnam policy is to achieve
the fullest possible accounting of our prisoners of war
and missing in action.
[[Page 6780]]
You are authorized and directed to report this
determination to the appropriate committees of the
Congress and to publish it in the Federal Register.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, February 3, 1999.
[FR Doc. 99-3504
Filed 2-10-99; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4710-10-M
