01/10/08 House Ag Chair sees hard work ahead on farm bill

Farm and Ranch January 10, 2008 House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson says Congress and the Bush administration are a long, long ways apart on the farm bill. Peterson met with Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner for the fifth time earlier this week. Peterson: "We are continue to press them to try and get some place close on payment limits and revenue, which are the two things they are strung out about. The payment limit thing is a lot bigger thing with them than people realize so we are working through that. They want to go considerably further than either the House or Senate did, which causes trouble with the southerners. So we are plugging away but we are a long ways apart. And if anybody thinks this is going to be easy, they are kidding themselves." Peterson says Conner has also been pretty "hard line" on the revenue-assurance changes in the counter-cyclical program - which Peterson thinks could get dropped from the bill in conference. In November - Peterson told farm broadcasters he was confident he could take whatever bill the Senate passed - conference it - and strike a deal with President Bush. Is he still that confident.? Peterson: "Uh, no. Part of the problem is the way the Senate did their bill. There are some real problems. There is huge increases in spending in that bill. The Administration is much more opposed to the Senate bill than they are the House bill because of the way it's financed." I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.