12/05/07 Senate Leader says some progress on farm bill amendments

Farm and Ranch December 5, 2007 Disagreement over amendments has been the stumbling block to getting a new farm bill addressed on the Senate floor. As Congress resumed work this week following its Thanksgiving Day recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reported to his colleagues that some progress on the amendment issue had been made. Reid: "Prior to the holiday we were unable to complete action on a farm bill because of the overwhelming number of amendments filed, many of which had nothing to do with farming. Senator McConnell and I are working through these amendments to come up with a reasonable list. While we have been on the Thanksgiving Day break staff has been working and I think we are at a point where we should be able to do a farm bill by unanimous consent." Incoming president of the Idaho Grain Producers Association, Matt Gellings, says lack of a farm bill has already impacted some growers. Gellings; "There is actually some guys that right now would be getting an advanced payment for 08 and with this farm bill held up they cannot get their advanced direct payments. So a lot of these guys are asking their bankers and the bankers are going until we see some results on that end we can't really back you up on this. So it is a concern, a financial concern." Once the Senate does pass a farm bill it will have to reconciled with the House adopted version. Some believe the two bills will be far enough apart that a conference committee would have a tough time reconciling the two. Then there is the presidential veto threat. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.