Posted by: Phillip Fraas
April 25, 2007
Topic: REPORTS ON FARM BILL STATUS--First Half of 2007

The Senate and House Agriculture Committees are still pushing to begin mark-up of the farm bill soon, in May in the House, perhaps June for the Senate; and before then likely the chairmen of the committees will come up with is referred to as "chairmen's marks" to facilitate the committee mark-up process.

In addition, Secretary of Agriculture Johanns recently indicated that USDA will soon have its farm bill proposals in the form of legislative language. It can be expected that some senior members of House and Senate friendly to USDA or its farm bill proposals will introduce bills incorporating the USDA legislative language; so that could be in the mix within the next few weeks as well.

When the chairman's marks come out and the mark-ups begin, the farm bill race will be on.

THE MARK-UP TIMING AND IMPACT

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, Tom Harkin (Dem.-Iowa), and the Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Collin Peterson (Dem.-Minn.), have to begin mark-up in May or June in order to have a fair chance of meeting their self-imposed deadline for finishing the farm bill this year.

They want to finish the bill this year because the current farm programs expire with the 2007 crops, and the chairmen would like farmers and agribusinesses to have as much time as possible to adjust to any changes in farm policy that might be made by the farm bill before the first 2008 crops are planted early next year.

The House of Representatives web site states that Congress will adjourn for the year in late October. Backing off from that date, Congress needs to have floor debate on the farm bill before the August recess (set to begin August 3). That would allow time in September and October for the House and Senate to resolve their differences on the legislation. And, for floor debate to occur in July, the agriculture committees have to mark-up the legislation in May and June.

What is mark-up and why is it important? A mark-up is a business meeting of a congressional committee, or series of meetings, to consider proposed legislation. At the mark-up, staff describes what is in the bill; the members offer and vote on amendments, and then the committee votes up or down on reporting the amended bill to the full House or Senate with a recommendation that it be passed.

The mark-up is the nitty-gritty stage of the legislative process in which a bill is technically vetted, controversies are spotted and debated, and the amount of spending under the bill is decided. And, the farm bill mark-up will be time-consuming and could take weeks to complete. This is so because the farm bill is big: it not only sets price and income support policy, but it contains titles on international trade, soil and water conservation, nutrition assistance, farm credit, and other important USDA programs. Also, the House Agriculture Committee is planning on having its subcommittees mark up the portions of the farm bill within their jurisdiction before the full committee considers the legislation.

Most farm bill issues are fairly technical and not of great interest to most of the country. So, the Senate and House leadership likely will be agreeable to what the committees come up with in the mark-up process, as long as they stay within the budget strictures.

Of course, there always will be a few farm bill issues that can't be put to bed entirely in committee mark-up and have to be debated anew during floor debate. Possible examples are country-of-origin food labeling requirements or other food safety proposals; increases or decreases in food stamp benefits; or how much to spend for new programs to foster the development of ethanol production from cellulosic feed stocks in order to help meet the Nation's energy independence goals.

THE CHAIRMAN'S MARK

The agriculture committees need something to work off of when marking up legislation. It would be cumbersome and time-consuming for the committees to review every farm bill legislative proposal and have to pick and choose among them. It facilitates the process for the chairman of the committee to provide a chairman's mark, that is, a draft farm bill that covers all the important issues.

The mark could be nothing more complicated that a simple restatement of the current law provisions of the farm bill; but, by the same token, or it could be a proposal to radically change the farm programs. The latter happened in 1996 when the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee introduced the "Freedom to Farm" legislation that wiped the existing farm programs of the books and proposed entirely new statutes. It is very unlikely that the USDA proposal will be the chairman's mark.

I expect the chairman's marks this time around likely will be somewhere close to just restating existing law, for the most common comment made at the many farm bill hearings and listening sessions held over the past year or so was that the current farm programs are working relatively okay and there is no need for radical changes.

Of course, we should look for some new proposals in the chairman's marks. There wasn't a big energy title in the 2002 farm bill, but there likely will be one this time around; so the chairman's marks might have a number of innovative energy proposals. Likewise, the chairmen might want to fine-tune or reshape the existing programs they include in their mark. I wouldn't be surprised, for example, if the chairmen propose to shift emphasis and money among existing programs, taking from some current programs and adding to conservation or disaster assistance programs.

The chairman's mark is of critical importance to the groups and organizations lobbying on farm bill issues. If a group's proposal is included in the chairman's mark, it have a substantial leg up in making sure its proposal is in the bill sent to the President for his signature. If the group's proposal is not included in the mark, the group has an uphill battle of finding a champion in Congress to offer the proposal as an amendment, and then lobbying many members of Congress to ensure they have a majority when the amendment is voted on. No small tasks, especially if the proposal is at all controversial.

Beyond that, the chairman's mark tends to set the direction and boundaries of the farm bill debate. It offers a glimpse of what the farm bill ultimately will look like.

Thus, I will be keeping my eyes peeled for what is in the chairmen's marks and posting what I find at this blog site.

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