BUSH APPROVES DROUGHT RELIEF

President Bush, saying ``farmers have indeed suffered,'' signed legislation Monday providing nearly $900 million in disaster relief for farms where crops were battered this year by rain or drought. The President persuaded Congress to trim the relief package to $897 million from an earlier $1.3 billion version passed by the House.

``It will provide relief only to those farmers hardest hit by adverse weather and it wisely rewards those who took the prudent step of purchasing crop insurance,'' he said.