[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 182 (Thursday, September 21, 2017)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 44289-44290]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-20376]



[[Page 44287]]

Vol. 82

Thursday,

No. 182

September 21, 2017

Part III





The President





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Proclamation 9639--Constitution Day, Citizenship Day, and Constitution 
Week, 2017



Proclamation 9640--National Farm Safety and Health Week, 2017



Proclamation 9641--National Gang Violence Prevention Week, 2017



Proclamation 9642--National Historically Black Colleges and 
Universities Week, 2017



Proclamation 9643--Prescription Opioid and Heroin Epidemic Awareness 
Week, 2017


                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 82 , No. 182 / Thursday, September 21, 2017 / 
Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

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                Proclamation 9639 of September 15, 2017

                
Constitution Day, Citizenship Day, and 
                Constitution Week, 2017

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                On the 230th anniversary of the Constitution of the 
                United States, we celebrate the enduring brilliance of 
                our Founding Charter and recognize all American 
                citizens. Older than any other written constitution in 
                use today, our Constitution establishes a system of 
                checks and balances designed to preserve liberty, 
                promote prosperity, and ensure the security of our 
                beloved country. On this day and during this week, we 
                recall the people and the principles that made our 
                Nation great and commit ourselves to restoring that 
                greatness.

                Our Constitution is founded on a fundamental trust in 
                America's citizens. ``We the People,'' the Constitution 
                proclaims, are the source of all governmental 
                authority. We are, as President Lincoln declared in the 
                war-torn fields of Gettysburg, a ``Government of the 
                People, by the People, for the People.'' That is why we 
                must be particularly mindful of a would-be ruling class 
                that has lost sight of this foundational truth. In the 
                drive for progressive reform, our Federal Government 
                has grown beyond belief and has layered regulation on 
                top of burdensome regulation. American citizens and 
                businesses face an unrelenting onslaught of rules and 
                regulations adopted by an army of regulators 
                unaccountable to the citizens they seek to control.

                My solemn promise as President is to return power to 
                the American People--to the workers and the warriors 
                who made this Nation great and will make it great 
                again. Restoring this founding principle of 
                accountability requires us to once again respect the 
                structural safeguards of our great Constitution. The 
                Framers of our Constitution sought to preserve liberty 
                by separating government power. In our constitutional 
                system, the Congress is charged with authoring and 
                amending the laws, in accordance with its beliefs about 
                what will benefit our country. The President's duty is 
                to execute those laws and protect the Nation, 
                consistent with the Constitution. And the Judiciary's 
                role is to faithfully apply the Constitution and the 
                laws to resolve specific cases and controversies. 
                Modern government, however, has rebelled against the 
                constraints inherent in these defined roles, abandoning 
                that original design in favor of a centralized system 
                of out-of-control agencies that claim independence from 
                elected leaders and demand deference from the courts.

                On this day and during this week, I call on all 
                citizens and all branches of government to reflect on 
                the original meaning of our Constitution, and to recall 
                the founding principles we too frequently forget: Our 
                government exists to preserve freedom and to serve its 
                citizens. We are accountable to the People. And the 
                public deserves clear, intelligible laws that are 
                enacted through an open, Constitutional process.

                As the elected head of the Executive Branch, I call on 
                Federal agencies to reduce the crushing burdens of the 
                regulatory state and to restore fairness, transparency, 
                and due process in all regulatory matters. We are here 
                to enable the greatness of our Nation, not to restrain 
                it. I call on the Congress to take up critical 
                legislative measures, and to work together to set free 
                the full potential of our People. I call on Federal 
                judges to apply the

[[Page 44290]]

                law as it exists, not as they wish it to be--to 
                exercise, in the words of our Founders, ``neither force 
                nor will, but merely judgment.'' And I call on all 
                American citizens to pursue greatness in their lives 
                through hard work and the insistence that their 
                government exists only by the people, and for the 
                people, of this great land.

                The Congress, by joint resolution of February 29, 1952 
                (36 U.S.C. 106), designated September 17 as 
                ``Constitution Day and Citizenship Day,'' and by joint 
                resolution of August 2, 1956 (36 U.S.C. 108), requested 
                that the President proclaim the week beginning 
                September 17 and ending September 23 of each year as 
                ``Constitution Week.''

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the 
                United States, do hereby proclaim September 17, 2017, 
                as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, and September 
                17, 2017, through September 23, 2017, as Constitution 
                Week. On this day and during this week, we celebrate 
                the citizens and the Constitution that has made America 
                the greatest Nation this world has ever known. In doing 
                so, we recommit ourselves to the enduring principles of 
                the Constitution and thereby ``secure the Blessings of 
                Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.''

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                fifteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand seventeen, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and forty-
                second.
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                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2017-20376
Filed 9-20-17; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3295-F7-P