[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 52 (Monday, December 27, 2004)]
[Pages 3009-3010]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Specialty Crops Competitiveness Act of 2004

December 21, 2004

    Today, I have signed into law H.R. 3242, the ``Specialty Crops 
Competitiveness Act of 2004'' (the ``Act''). The Act is designed to 
increase the competitiveness of fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried 
fruits, and nursery crops grown in the United States.
    Section 1408A of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and 
Teaching Policy Act of 1977, as amended by section 303 of the Act, 
purports to require the Secretary of Agriculture to take into 
consideration certain advisory board-approved findings and 
recommendations in preparing the Secretary's annual departmental budget 
proposal to the President and to disclose to the Congress how the 
Secretary addressed each such recommendation. The executive branch shall 
construe section 1408A in a manner consistent with the President's 
constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch, to 
require the opinions of principal officers of the executive departments, 
to recommend for the consideration of the Congress such measures as the 
President shall judge necessary and expedient, and to withhold 
information the disclosure of which could impair the deliberative 
processes of the Executive or the performance of the Executive's 
constitutional duties.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 December 21, 2004.

Note: At the time of publication, H.R. 3242, approved December 21, had 
not been received by the Office of the Federal Register for assignment 
of a Public Law number.

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