Reading Room Document

Statutory Mandate to Propose Legislation in Response to Medicare Funding Warning

The Recommendations Clause bars Congress from enacting laws that purport to prevent the President from recommending legislation that he judges "necessary and expedient." The Recommendations Clause bars Congress from enacting laws that purport to require the President to recommend legislation even if he does not judge it "necessary and expedient." Section 802 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, which requires the President to submit "proposed legislation" in response to a Medicare funding warning under section 801(a)(2), contravenes the Recommendations Clause and may be treated as advisory and non-binding. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/olc/file/2016-08-25-medicare-warning/download.

August 25, 2016