03 January 2013

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What is Autopen President Obama signs fiscal-cliff legislation using Autopen while vacationing in Hawaii

What is Autopen President Obama signs fiscal-cliff legislation using Autopen while vacationing in Hawaii

In 2005, the U.S. Justice Department issued a legal opinion upholding the right of the U.S. President to sign bills by autopen.

Justice Department in its opinion has clearly said that We conclude that the president need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law,"
"Rather," it added, "the president may sign a bill within the meaning of Article I, Section 7 by directing a subordinate to affix the president's signature to such a bill, for example by autopen."

In 2011 First time President Obama used the Autopen and became the First President to use Autopen

Before the use of Autopen white house officers would travel overseas to hand-deliver passed legislation to the president so President can Sign the legislation.

Now President Obama has started to use Autopen thus White house officers do not need to travel to him, President Obama can Sign the legislation from any location using his Autopen.

On Wednesday night, President Obama signed fiscal-cliff legislation by autopen while vacationing in Hawaii

What is White House autopen? How Autopen Works?

An autopen or signing machine is a device used for the automatic signing of a signature
The autopen operates using a matrix of the original signature or something like that with which it then uses a writing instrument to create signatures.

The first signature duplicating machines were developed by an Englishman named John Isaac Hawkins. Hawkins received a United States patent for his device in 1803.

In 1804, Thomas Jefferson began using the device extensively.
This early device was known at the time as a polygraph (an abstracted version of the pantograph) and bears little resemblance to today's autopens in design or operation.

The modern autopen called the Robot Pen was developed in the 1930s and became commercially available in 1937 (used as a storage unit device, similar in principle to how vinyl records store information) to record a signer's signature.

A small segment of the record could be removed and stored elsewhere to prevent misuse.

The machine would then be able to mass-produce a template signature when needed.

The device allows President Obama to affix his signature to legislation without actually holding the pen.

Obama signed Patriot Act while he was in Europe using Autopen

Obama signed an emergency spending bill while he was traveling in Indonesia using autopen.

Normally Autopen is used to be reserved for signatures on mass mailings.
Harry Truman is believed to have been the first United States President to use the autopen as a way of responding to mail and signing checks.

But President Obama uses Autopen, which saves time of country and fuel and money of country.
It is good for environment also.

Watch the Video How Autopen Works




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Thursday, January 03, 2013

Tags – Autopen USA President Obama

4 comments:

Usha January 04, 2013  

Thanks for making post explaining what is Autopen?...I heard the news but now know history and details of Autopen.

Destination Infinity January 06, 2013  

All govts should consider using electronic signature over the Internet in order to speed up procedural approvals, signing, etc. It's silly to expect people to be at office and keep signing every single document always, in this Internet dominated era.

Destination Infinity