Gerald R. Ford: Veto of Animal Health Research Legislation

You can search the Public Papers in two ways:

1. Search by Keyword and Year
You can search by keyword and choose the range of years within your search by filling out the boxes under Search the Public Papers.

2. View by Month and/or Year
Select the month and/or year you would like information about and press View Public Papers. Then choose a Public Paper and the page will load for you.

Search Engine provided by the Harry S. Truman Library. Our thanks to
Jim Borwick and Dr. Rafee Che Kassim at Project Whistlestop for critical assistance in the implementation of the search function, and to Scott Roley at the Truman Library for facilitating this collaboration.

9 - Veto of Animal Health Research Legislation
August 14, 1974

Gerald R. Ford
1974

Font Size:

Report Typo

To the House of Representatives:

I am returning today without my approval H.R. 11873, an act authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to encourage and assist States in carrying out programs of animal health research.

I believe, as do proponents of this bill, that veterinary research has helped to make American livestock the healthiest and most productive in the world. We must continue to maintain high standards of research.

But I also believe that this bill adds little to the existing programs of the Department of Agriculture and other agencies.

We are presently spending over $40 million on programs involving animal health research, and nearly every land grant college and colleges of veterinary medicine in the United States is participating in these programs.

This bill, however, would establish a new categorical grant program that would authorize an expenditure of an additional $47 million annually and would be duplicative of many programs that already exist. The overlapping would be especially true of programs in fish and shellfish research and predator control.

Because this bill would add further to the Federal taxpayers' burdens without significantly meeting national needs and would only add to inflationary pressures within the economy, I feel that I must withhold my approval.

GERALD R. FORD
The White House,
August 14, 1974.

Note: The text of the veto message was released August 15, 1974.

APP Note: In the Public Papers of the Presidents series, this document is dated August 15, 1974, the date it was released. The American Presidency Project dates this document as August 14, 1974, the date the bill was vetoed.

Citation: John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=4727.

Home