Bush signs emergency agriculture spending bill

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- President Bush signed a $5.5 billion aid package Monday to help farmers across the country who have been hit hard by high energy costs, drought and low prices for their crops.

Bush signed the supplemental appropriations measure just outside the front door of his private house, on his ranch on the dry central Texas prairie, where he is vacationing through the month of August.

"It's a piece of legislation to provide economic assistance to the 'ag' communities all across America," said the president, dressed in shirt sleeves and blue jeans and standing before a rustic backdrop of tractors and farm equipment. "And it's necessary," he added. "It's necessary for our ranchers and our farmers."

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The new money represents the fourth federal farm aid package approved in as many years. In particular, it is meant to offset low prices for soybeans, corn and other grains. The bulk of the bailout, some $5 billion worth, will go to grain, cotton and soybean growers. It brings the total farm aid approved by Congress to $30.5 billion since grain prices collapsed in 1998.

In his comments before signing the bill, Bush spoke of the importance of farming to the nation's well-being.

"I'm worried about the fact that the 'ag' economy suffers, because agriculture is a part of our national security mix," he said. "If we can't grow enough food to feed our people, we've got a problem. It will complicate our foreign policy, needless to say. Well, we've got to make sure our 'ag' economy stays strong and healthy. And this supplemental is a way to help do that."

The president also spoke fondly of the small-town values found in Crawford and other farming communities throughout the United States, something he said should be preserved.

"It's a meaningful piece of legislation for this part of the country because a lot of people make their living on the farm and on the ranch. And we want our families to be on the farms and ranch," Bush said. "After all, farm families represent the best of America. They represent the values that have made this country unique and different -- values of love of family, values of respect for nature."

Bush, who fought off an attempt by the Senate to boost the aid in the farm bill to more than $7 billion, said he hoped the money would "make the lives of the people who farm and the people who ranch much better off."

The president was joined for the ceremony by a group of farmers and ranchers from the area, which has been hit hard by drought in recent years.

"I was hoping it would start raining in the middle of this little talk and then I could take credit for it," he said, drawing a round of laughter.