08/27/07 Farm bill

The Congress ends its month long vacation on September 4th but don't look for the US Senate to jump right on the farm bill bandwagon. The House completed its work and passed its version of the farm bill just before the break. Senate Ag Committee chairman Tom Harkin says he won't put a bill in front of the committee until mid to late September. National Farmers Union President Tom Buis says that schedule may slip even more. BUIS "Everyone's been talking about this report by General Petraeus for quite some time and it's due the third week in September and I would imagine that would take up a lot of time in the United States Senate American Farm Bureau's Tara Smith doesn't think that Harkin will get the floor time next month from Democratic leadership. SMITH "So I think the chances of us having a bill conferenced before the beginning of October are about slim to none at this time." The current farm bill expires on September 30th and there are indications that the House and Senate versions of the new bill need a lot of conferencing to work out the differences. SMITH "Senator Harkin isn't very fond of the idea of marking up a bill in committee and giving it more than two weeks to sort of ripen if you will before it goes to the floor." But Harkin still doesn't know how much funding will be available to write the new bill and the staff is still working on the numbers. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott