EAST LANSING, Michigan: In a large barn smelling faintly of horses, US President Barack Obama signed the $956bn farm bill into law on Friday, comparing the five-year law to “a Swiss Army knife” because of the variety of ways it can support jobs in America.
“It multi tasks,” Obama said, describing how the law supports not only farmers and ranchers but poor families on food stamps, researchers working on biofuels, and businesses developing and exporting new products from rural America.
Obama signed the bill — which the Congressional Budget Office says will save $16.6bn over 10 years compared to current funding — at Michigan State University. Using a different measure, lawmakers have estimated the savings at $23bn.
Michigan is the home state of Senator Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, who was on hand for the signing along with a small group of Democratic lawmakers and US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
The White House invited 50 lawmakers, including Republicans involved in the years-long negotiation process that produced the final bill. But in a sign of ongoing tensions with Obama, no Republican lawmakers attended.
The president noted the compromises involved in the legislation, which runs to over 350 pages, and called the bill, passed with bipartisan support, “a good sign.” He also urged lawmakers to keep the momentum going and pass bills to reform immigration laws, extend unemployment insurance, and raise the minimum wage.
The farm bill cut funding for food stamps to the poor by about $8bn over 10 years, or about 1 percent — measure decried as too harsh by anti poverty groups and too generous by Republicans, who sought even larger cuts. Obama has made addressing the gap between rich and poor a major policy focus for his administration this year.
Reuters
