Statement on Signing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022

On December 27, 2021, President Biden issued a signing statement upon signing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 into law. The NDAA is the annual legislation authorizing appropriations and policy directives for the Department of Defense and is among the most consequential pieces of legislation Congress passes each year. Biden's signing statement expressed support for the legislation's core defense policy and authorization provisions while registering constitutional objections to certain specific provisions.

The signing statement identified provisions Biden considered constitutionally problematic, including provisions that he believed improperly interfered with executive authority over foreign policy, military operations, or the President's role as Commander in Chief. Biden reserved the right to construe or implement such provisions in a manner consistent with the constitutional allocation of powers, as Presidents have done in signing statements since the early republic. He also noted provisions he considered potential infringements on executive privilege or the President's authority to control the disclosure of sensitive national security information.

Signing statements are a well-established but sometimes controversial tool through which Presidents formally record their interpretation of legislation they are signing. While they do not have the force of law, they can influence how executive agencies implement statutory requirements and can signal potential executive branch non-compliance with specific provisions. Biden's use of signing statements for the FY2022 NDAA continued a bipartisan tradition of Presidents seeking to preserve executive prerogatives when signing broad national security legislation.

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