Posted by: Phillip Fraas
December 13, 2007
Topic: REPORTS ON FARM BILL STATUS--Second Half of 2007

After weeks of deadlock between Democrats and Republicans on the terms for the floor debate of the farm bill, agreement was reached last Friday on a plan for handling the bill and floor debate began in earnest this Monday. Since then, the Senate has worked its way through most of the proposed amendments to the committee-reported farm bill, and it now appears that the Senate is close to voting on final passage.

What has transpired this week is that the floor manager of the farm bill, Tom Harkin, Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, has worked out compromises on literally scores of amendments (there were close to 300 amendments being discussed at one time) and the legislative language for those compromises is being assembled into a giant manager's amendment that will be offered for unanimous consent approval just before the final vote in tbe Senate on passage of the bill. Amendments that couldn't be resolved amicably have been debated and voted on over the course of this week.

So far, the votes have gone in favor of the Agriculture Committee, that is, the Senate has rejected just about every proposal to change the language of the committee-reported bill. That includes the Lautenberg-Lugar substitute that would have replaced current farm payment programs with revenue insurance, the Dorgan-Grassley proposal to tighten payment limitation rules, and the Klobuchar amendment to reduce to $750,000 the adjusted gross income (AGI) limit on eligibility to participate in farm payment programs.

What likely will happen after the Senate finishes with the farm bill is that staff of the House and Senate agriculture committees, over the course of the next three to four weeks, will work jointly to develop conference committee documents that spell out the differences between the two versions of the legislation and then informal discussions on resolving conflicts between the two bills will commence. 

Formal convening of the conference committee can be expected as early as the third week in January, and the conferees will push to work through the differences quickly so the farm bill can be in place for the planting of the 2008 crops.

In general terms, it appears that the House and Senate have fairly similar bills so that, if it were left up to the two bodies by themselves, the conference would not be difficult. However, the legislation won't become law unless the President signs it, and right now his Administration is adamantly opposed to the revenue-raising measures included in both bills to pay for increased spending on such programs as renewable energy development, nutrition assistance, and soil and water conservation. Further, the Administration strongly believes that the AGI eligibility limit must be reduced more than either version of the bill now does. In fact, today, Acting Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Conner issued a statement decrying the Senate's rejection of the Klobuchar amendment to tighten the AGI limit. 

For right now, however, everyone interested in getting a new farm bill will breathe a small sigh of relief once the Senate concludes debate, in recognition that another big step will have been taken toward final passage.   

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