ExecutiveOrdersEO
DetDeterminationClinton · D

Presidential Determination

Vietnamese Cooperation in Accounting for United States Prisoners of War and Missing in Action (POW/MIA)

President Clinton determined that Vietnam was fully cooperating in good faith on POW/MIA accounting from the Vietnam War, as required by a 1998 appropriations rider (section 609). However, he simultaneously asserted that this congressional condition on appropriations was unconstitutional as an intrusion on exclusive presidential foreign affairs authority, providing the determination only as a matter of comity while reserving his constitutional position.

Federal Register Open PDF 63 FR 13109

Impact dates

  1. Report determination to Congress and publish in Federal Register

Key directives

  • Secretary of State to report determination to appropriate congressional committees
  • Secretary of State to publish determination in Federal Register

Who is ordered

Timeline

Immediate

  • Determination published in Federal Register March 17, 1998
  • Constitutional objection to section 609 formally reserved

Near term (90d)

  • Secretary of State to report determination to Congress

Long term

  • Ongoing POW/MIA accounting activities with Vietnam
  • Potential precedent for executive resistance to congressional conditions on foreign policy appropriations

Risks & tensions

  • Executive branch explicitly challenges constitutionality of congressional appropriations rider while complying with it
  • Separation of powers tension: condition on appropriations vs. exclusive presidential foreign affairs authority
  • Comity-based compliance creates uncertain precedent for future administrations facing similar riders
Presidential Determination: Vietnamese Cooperation in Accounting for United States Prisoners of War and Missing in Action (POW/MIA) · Executive Orders