    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 32 (Monday, August 13, 2001)]
    [Pages 1147-1148]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Exchange With Reporters at the Coffee Station Restaurant in Crawford,
    Texas

    August 8, 2001

    Agriculture Economic Assistance Bill

        The President. I've got some of the local farmers here; I'm going to
    explain to them the 5.5 supplemental I'm signing here pretty soon.
    Emergency supplemental for----

    President's Vacation

        Q. How does it feel to be here with the people of Crawford?
        The President. It's great to be here with the people of Crawford.
        Q. What did you order, sir?
        The President. I ordered a cheeseburger and some onion rings. And
    I'm not sharing any with you. [Laughter]

    [[Page 1148]]

        Stretch [Richard Keil, Bloomberg News], you order something up.
    You're getting paid too much money anyway.
        Q. I'll have a bite of your cheeseburger. How's that?
        Q. Sir, did the sign make you decide to come inside?
        The President. What did it say?
        Q. Did the sign outside make you decide to stop?
        The President. I didn't see it. What did it say?
        Q. It said, ``George and Laura, come by.''

    Agriculture Economic Assistance Bill

        The President. No. What made me decide to stop was the wonderful
    people who own the place--and the cheeseburger. [Laughter]
        One of the things that I'm talking about here is how hard it is for
    a lot of these farmers to make a living. And one of the things about the
    farm program that we've got to make sure happens is that when there's
    emergency aid, like the bill I'm going to sign here next week, it gets
    to the farmers who are farming.
        A lot of times that money goes to people who aren't farmers. We want
    to make sure it goes to help the farmers who are actually farming the
    land. There's a lot of medium-sized farmers that need help, and one of
    the things that we're going to make sure of as we restructure the farm
    program next year is that the money goes to the people it's meant to
    help.
        I'm also going to tell them that part of the supplemental--some
    folks tried to increase the supplemental, but that money wasn't going to
    the farmers. The extra money they tried to put on that would have busted
    the budget wasn't going to farmers; it was going to other matters. And
    what I'm interested in is, giving payments to the people that, like the
    corn farmers here at the table, that are working hard to make a living.
        Having said that, now we can eat. [Laughter]

    President's Vacation

        Q. [Inaudible]--are you going running this afternoon?
        The President. I'm not going to run today, but I'll get you out
    there one of these days. I'm not going to run today.

    Note: The exchange began at 10:40 a.m. A tape was not available for
    verification of the content of this exchange.