President Barack Obama signed into law a highly scrutinized farm bill at Michigan University that intends to allocate benefits to farmers while splicing spending on food stamps.
The Associated Press remarks that the legislation took two years of a bipartisan effort to complete, to which the President stated was a "a very challenging piece of business." The bill will cost $100 billion per year over the course of five years, and is meant to expand federal crop insurance while ending direct government payments to farmers for products that may or may not be in production.
USA Today notes that this marks Obama’s first trip to Michigan in two years. Former Michigan State grad and chairwoman of the State Agriculture Committee Sen. Debbie Stabenow had a large part to play in the legislations success, and Michigan University is well known for their research in agriculture. Ryan Finley, the Farm Bureau’s national legislative counsel, commented on the significance of the bill being signed at the accredited university.
"Second to California, we're the most diverse state from an agricultural perspective in the United States."
Despite the bipartisan effort, invites from the President to Republican lawmakers went unanswered.
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