07/26/07 U.S. Senate farm bill update

Farm and Ranch July 26, 2007 The U.S. House of Representatives may be about to wrap up its work on a new farm bill but it is going to be a while before the Senate gets moving on new legislation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has informed Senate Ag Committee chairman Tom Harkin there is no room on the schedule to bring the farm bill to the floor ahead of the August recess. And Harkin has said he doesn't intend to mark up a bill until he knows when it will go to the floor. Harkin: "Hopefully we will mark up in committee the second week of September and hopefully get on the floor before the end of September." Harkin says he and his staff will continue working with members of the Senate Ag and Finance Committees to find offsets within the budget resolution to fund farm bill priorities like ramping up renewable energy production - encouraging conservation - promoting rural economic development and ensuring a strong farm safety net. As for Harkin's view of the House Ag Committee bill. Harkin: "There are some good features in the House bill. Some others I would like to improve on. Most notably the House seriously neglected the enormous potential and value of the Conservation Security Program and I intend to do something about that." Meanwhile, Senators Durbin and Brown have introduced a bill that would replace existing counter-cyclical payments and loan deficiency payments with a state level revenue protection program. Direct payments would not be affected by the revenue program. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.