The White House has officially confirmed that President Barack Obama will be in Buffalo next Thursday, August 22, to kick off of a two-day bus tour. The administration says Obama will talk about improving the value and reducing the cost of higher education for middle class families. His exact agenda has not been released.
Word of a Presidential visit first began circulating Monday. Senator Charles Schumer confirmed the news Tuesday.
The president will also visit Syracuse, Binghamton, and northwest Pennsylvania.
One of the region's top Democrats says he would like to see the president stop in downtown Buffalo. Rep. Brian Higgins says the president's visit could show how a city that once had an economy based on heavy industry has been transformed.
"Forty years ago, the largest employer in Western New York was Bethlehem Steel. Now it's the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Campus," Higgins said Wednesday.
The tour is meant to extend Obama's effort to refocus on economic issues ahead of looming fiscal fights with Congress. Higgins says the emphasis of the President's remarks in Buffalo will be on worker training and higher education.
"It's fundamentally important that our students...be educated up to and beyond the current technology. The fastest growing sector of our economy is information technology. So I think the President's message will be on target relative to what this country needs in order to remain competitive in a globalized economy," Higgins said.
Obama last visited Buffalo in May of 2010. He toured and spoke at a manufacturing facility, met with the families of Continental Flight 3407, and stopped for chicken wings at Duff's.
