For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
December 3, 2004

President's Statement on H.R. 1350

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.

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