“The administration is thumbing its nose at the law,” Conyers said. He also called for “an extensive review of these practices, something the administration has so far refused to do.”

The GAO report shows that the president has issued signing statements, documents in which the president may question the constitutionality of the law being signed, in 11 of 12 appropriations acts in fiscal 2006. The GAO also examined the execution of the law in 19 provisions on which Bush penned signing statements and found that federal agencies failed to follow the law in six of those cases, which amounts to over 30 percent.

Byrd, like Conyers, expressed outrage at the GAO’s findings, saying, “The White House cannot pick and choose which laws it follows and which it ignores. When a president signs a bill into law, the president signs the entire bill. The administration cannot be in the business of cherry-picking the laws it likes and the laws it doesn’t.”

The GAO report comes on the heels of an April report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), which found that the president has issued a higher percentage of signing statements objecting to the bill than his predecessors. The CRS analysis found Bush has issued 149 signing statements, with 127 (85 percent) voicing his objection to the bill. By contrast, President Reagan issued 276 signing statements, only 26 percent of which expressed objection to the law. Of the 391 signing statements President Clinton penned, 27 percent objected to the bill.

As a result of Bush’s objections, the GAO found that federal agencies have failed to follow laws passed by Congress. The Defense Department did not include budget justification documents explaining how 2007 war funding was spent, as required by law. Moreover, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did not submit a proposal and expenditure plan for housing, as directed by Congress.

“This GAO opinion underscores the fact that the Bush White House is constantly grabbing for more power, seeking to drive the people's branch of government to the sidelines,” Byrd, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said. “Too often, the Bush administration does what it wants, no matter the law. It says what it wants, no matter the facts. We must continue to demand accountability and openness from this White House to counter this power grab.”