10/08/07 Senate farm bill mark up still two weeks away

Farm and Ranch October 8, 2007 Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin post-poned the farm bill mark up that was tentatively scheduled for last Thursday. Committee spokesperson Kate Cyrul says the problem was the Senate schedule was such that many members would not have been around at the end of the week making mark up very hard. Cyrul: "The chairman is now looking toward the week of October 22nd to resume the mark up and we will be scheduling something formally in the coming days." The Senate Finance Committee did meet last week and pass Chairman Max Baucus's 16 billion dollar Heartland, Habitat, Harvest and Horticulture Act of 2007. That measure contains creation of a trust fund for a permanent disaster program, something chairman Baucus and committee member Kent Conrad of North Dakota wanted. Conrad: "An awful lot of people are going to benefit around the country. I believe ultimately taxpayers will do better. They will save money rather than having ad hoc disaster bills every year because this is going to encourage people to buy crop insurance." Baucus's bill also provides an option for participants in conservation programs like the CRP to take a tax credit instead of a payment. Baucus says that and the disaster program will free up funds to be used elsewhere in farm bill spending. Finding the votes for a farm bill in the Senate Ag Committee is still a struggle though according to Mark Maslyn of the American Farm Bureau, who says key policy differences remain. Maslyn: "Permanent disaster program, direct payments, crop insurance. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of consensus that exists right now." I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.