[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 49 (Monday, December 6, 2004)]
[Pages 2898-2899]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Individuals with Disabilities Education 
Improvement Act of 2004

December 3, 2004

    Today, I have signed into law H.R. 1350, the ``Individuals with 
Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004.'' The Act strengthens 
the ability of the Federal Government to assist States in the education 
of children with disabilities.
    The executive branch shall construe provisions of the Act that 
require taking account of race, culture, gender, age, region, 
socioeconomics, ideology, secularity, and partisan politics, including 
sections 612, 616, 618, 637, 663, 664, and 681 of the Individuals with 
Disabilities Education Act, as enacted by section 101 of the Act, and 
section 177(b)(3) of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, as 
enacted by section 201(a)(2) of the Act, in a manner consistent with the 
First Amendment and the requirement of the Due Process Clause of the 
Fifth Amendment to the Constitution to afford equal protection of the 
laws.
    The executive branch shall construe section 615(e)(2)(G) of the 
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as enacted by section 101 
of the Act, as establishing a duty for a State to follow the specified 
statutory exclusionary rule only when that duty is a condition of a 
Federal grant or contract accepted by or under the authority of that 
State, as is consistent with the principles governing Federal-State 
relations enunciated by the Supreme Court of the United States in Printz 
v. United States.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 December 3, 2004.

Note: At the time of publication, H.R. 1350, approved December 3, had 
not been received by the Office of the Federal Register for assignment 
of a Public Law number.

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