President Joe Biden used an autopen to sign at least one piece of legislation: a bill extending funding for the Federal Aviation Administration while he was in San Francisco in May 2024, according to a CNN report citing an anonymous White House official.
This marked a rare use of the device in his administration, as the White House reportedly went to great lengths to ensure Biden physically signed important bills, such as a $40 billion Ukraine aid package in South Korea in 2022 and a bill to avert a government shutdown while he was in St. Croix.
The use of an autopen to sign legislation is not unprecedented. A 2005 Justice Department memo concluded that a president may sign a bill "by directing a subordinate to affix the President’s signature to such a bill, for example by autopen," and President Barack Obama became the first to do so in 2011 while out of the country.
Thomas Jefferson also used an early version of the device, known as a polygraph, starting in 1804.
Brave AI:
President Joe Biden used an autopen to sign at least one piece of legislation: a bill extending funding for the Federal Aviation Administration while he was in San Francisco in May 2024, according to a CNN report citing an anonymous White House official. This marked a rare use of the device in his administration, as the White House reportedly went to great lengths to ensure Biden physically signed important bills, such as a $40 billion Ukraine aid package in South Korea in 2022 and a bill to avert a government shutdown while he was in St. Croix.
The use of an autopen to sign legislation is not unprecedented. A 2005 Justice Department memo concluded that a president may sign a bill "by directing a subordinate to affix the President’s signature to such a bill, for example by autopen," and President Barack Obama became the first to do so in 2011 while out of the country. Thomas Jefferson also used an early version of the device, known as a polygraph, starting in 1804.
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