Posted by: Phillip Fraas
May 05, 2008
Topic: REPORTS ON 2008 FARM BILL STATUS--January 2008 To Enactment

Late last week, Congress passed, and the President signed, another extension of current farm bill programs. This time, it was a two-week extension to May 16. Enactment of the extension followed a flurry of activity earlier in the week: the President on Tuesday strongly criticized the direction Congress was headed on the farm bill, immediately raising concerns of a possible veto of the bill; soon thereafter, the leaders of the congressional conference committee on the farm bill met with Secretary of Agriculture Schafer for an extended session to discuss Administration concerns; and then the conferees met late into the night Thursday to work through House and Senate differences.

It remains to be seen whether the Schafer meeting and the Thursday work narrowed the differences between Congress and the Administration sufficiently to avoid a veto. On the plus side (i.e., no veto), at least Schafer and congressional leaders are talking, the President was amenable to giving the process two more weeks to play out, and what Congress is putting together appears to have the support of many Republicans as well as the majority Democrats (if it looks there are enough votes to override a possible veto, the President might draw back from a veto threat). On the other hand, both sides seem to be getting increasingly entrenched in their positions and preparing for a veto showdown.

Among the current sticking points: The Administration wants support to farmers to be the form of direct payments, which are made whether commodity prices are high or low, while Congress favors support via countercyclical payments, which are only made when prices are low. Also, the two sides are still wrestling with the adjusted gross income (AGI) limits. The Administration wants a new rule that keeps anyone with an AGI of over $200,000 out of the support programs (the current AGI limit is $2,5 million), while Congress is looking at setting a new AGI limit somewhat north of $500,000. A third open issue for the Administration is  funding--it wants increases over the base line for new farm bill spending scaled back some more.

As to what is next, one likely scenario making the rounds has Congress going ahead and passing a bill this week that the Administration can't live with and the President quickly vetoing it. Then, Congress would have the opportunity next week (until the new extension runs out on Friday, the 16th) to count votes and either override the veto or make sufficient changes to mollify the Administration. Whatever the scenario, one senses that the die will be cast on the new farm bill in the next couple of week. I will keep you posted. 

News

Environment

[11/14] NY pet cemetery ranked among Taj Mahal, pyramids
[11/13] Man arrives at bar with pet alligator; cops called
Read More

Web Resources

United States Department of Agriculture
FindLaw
Thomson West
U.S. Courts
Westlaw
United States Chamber of Commerce
FirstGov
Legislative Branch
Library of Congress
White House
Internal Revenue Service
National Weather Service
Yahoo!Maps
YellowPages.com
New York Times
Newspapers Online
USA Today
Wall Street Journal
AOL
Google
Yahoo!Legal Blog Directory