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After months of delay and weeks of heavy negotiations, House and Senate farm bill conferees met Thursday night and approved the vast majority of farm bill provisions. The conferees approved all titles save for about 10 issues that remain to be worked out by staff or are waiting on Congressional Budget Office scoring. Some remaining issues are serious and could prove contentious; payment limitation levels have yet to be established, tax provisions were held up and a provision that would privatize the food stamp program was put off after a lengthy debate.
Two amendments that would have restored a full direct payment were rejected by conferees during the meeting. The first, offered by Rep. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), would have reduced the increase in target prices and loan rates approved for some crops, redirecting the money to the direct payment program. The second, offered by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), would have eliminated a $175 million earmark for salmon recovery that was not in the House- or Senate-passed versions of the bill and reduced Title II, or conservation, spending by $141 million, redirecting that money to the direct payment program. NAWG advocated for both amendments throughout the week.
Despite those defeats and the remaining items, the Thursday meeting, which lasted until about 1 a.m. Friday morning, was a major step forward in the formal farm bill process. The 2002 Farm Bill officially expired on Sept. 30, 2007, and has been extended five times to allow negotiators to continue work.
The most recent extension was passed this week by both chambers and would take the bill through May 16. President George W. Bush was expected to sign the extension, though he has repeatedly voiced opposition to continued short-term extensions. It remains unclear whether the President will sign the final bill when it eventually gets to his desk.
Conference committee head and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) indicated no further conference meetings would be held until, at the earliest, Tuesday afternoon.
Policy is one of the most important issues facing farmers today, but often the most difficult to digest. Jacqui Fatka has a passion to decode the often difficult world of agricultural policy into terms understandable for today's ag players.
Fatka joined the Farm Progress team as E-Content Editor in August 2003 after graduating from Iowa State University. Prior to full-time employment with Farm Progress, she interned at Wallaces Farmer magazine, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley's press office and the Iowa Pork Producers Association and freelanced for National Hog Farmer. She also worked as a public relations consultant with Iowa Industries for the Future, an effort to bring together major players in the biorenewables industry.
Currently Fatka is a staff editor at a sister publication, Feedstuffs. For Farm Futures she regularly tells the story of ongoing agricultural policy changes. Her byline can also be found on management profiles.
Fatka grew up on a grain and livestock farm near Atlantic, Iowa. She currently lives in central Ohio with her husband Eric.
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