President Barack Obama paid a visit to Michigan State University Friday to sign the new federal farm bill. We have more from The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Rick Pluta.
About 500 people packed a campus hall to witness the occasion.
The event capped years of negotiations and some tough compromises with Congress on the complex legislation. President Obama said he’s always glad to return to Michigan to cheer the auto industry recovery. Now, he says, it’s time to do the same for agriculture and rural America.
Mr. Obama says the scope of farm bill is bigger than just farming.
“A jobs bill, an innovation bill, an infrastructure bill, a conservation bill, a research bill,” he says. “It’s like a Swiss Army knife.”
The president says he’s not happy with everything in the farm bill. But he says he would not have signed anything that denied benefits to vulnerable families or children.