Cite as: 539 U. S. 396 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
United States at any time after January 30, 1933, that issued any individual life, health, or property-casualty insurance policy to any individual on any list of Holocaust victims." § 3(a)(4)(A), 112 Stat. 613. These provisions are no help to HVIRA. The Commission's focus was limited to assets in the possession of the Government, and if anything, the federal Act assumed it was the National Government's responsibility to deal with returning those assets. See § 3(d), 112 Stat. 614 (President to collect recommendations from the commission and submit a suggested plan for "legislative, administrative, or other action" to Congress). In any event, the federal Act's reference to the state insurance commissioners as compiling information was expressly limited "to the degree the information is available," § 3(a)(4)(B), 112 Stat. 613, a proviso that can hardly be read to condone state sanctions interfering with federal efforts to resolve such claims.
Indeed, it is worth noting that Congress has done nothing to express disapproval of the President's policy. Legislation along the lines of HVIRA has been introduced in Congress repeatedly, but none of the bills has come close to making it into law. See H. R. 1210, 108th Cong., 1st Sess. (2003); S. 972, 108th Cong., 1st Sess. (2003); H. R. 2693, 107th Cong., 1st Sess. (2001); H. R. 126, 106th Cong., 1st Sess. (1999).
In sum, Congress has not acted on the matter addressed here. Given the President's independent authority "in the areas of foreign policy and national security, . . . congressional silence is not to be equated with congressional disapproval." Haig v. Agee, 453 U. S. 280, 291 (1981).
VI
The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is reversed.
So ordered.
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