02/14/08 House Ag leaders say agreement needed on spending to move farm bill

Farm and Ranch February 14, 2008 U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson and committee ranking Republican Bob Goodlatte say they can write a farm bill for about six billion dollars over baseline, with no taxes included, that could pass the House and is at the spending level the administration itself had proposed in its farm bill. That would be less than the spending level in the House passed farm bill and much less than the Senate's version. Peterson and Goodlatte sent the Senate a proposal for a farm bill based on the six billion over baseline, but they both emphasized for reporters Wednesday that the details of that plan are not set in stone and it is premature to talk about them at this point. Peterson: "What has to be done is to decide how much over the baseline we are going to have to do this bill. Any other discussion is a waste of my time. And I am going to tell the Senate that. And tell the White House that. There is no other thing to talk about other than set a number. And once we set a number then we can start fighting about how we are going to offset this and how we are going to divvy up the money. Goodlatte agreed. Goodlatte: "It is useless in my opinion at this point to debate the merits of this particular proposal when we do not have any agreement with the Senate on how much money is going to be spent." An extension of the 2002 Farm Bill expires March 15th and the House leadership at least, says it will not vote on another extension. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.