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A farm bill compromise between House and Senate leaders may be closer. New reports out indicate an agreement may include $9 billion above baseline, between the House's previously proposed $6 billion increase, but less than the Senate and farm groups' request for $12.5 billion over baseline.
This year has not been an ordinary one for farm bill negotiations. Typically the House and Senate write their farm bills and then behind closed doors conference committee members from both chambers hammer out final details. But with the White House veto threat, the House has been doing more negotiating with the White House and leaving the Senate on the sidelines.
That all came to a head over the past 10 days as time is dwindling before a March 15 deadline that if not met will send legislation back to the original 1949 bill.
Friday, Feb. 15 the Senate proposed a bill along similar lines asked from farm groups with the $12.5 billion above baseline. USDA loudly objected to the proposal, saying it raised taxes, and took a step back from needed reform measures. USDA estimates the real cost of the Senate proposal is more like $23 billion over budget baseline, a figure the administration could not support.
Although not finalized, an agreement between the two chambers is said to cost $9 billion over the current baseline. The farm bill would be changed to a 10-year period, unlike the traditional 5-year farm bills.
It also will create a separate deal for a permanent farm disaster aid program. The budget for the permanent disaster aid program will be smaller than the $5 billion-over-five-years program proposed in the farm bill the Senate passed last year, reports indicate.
During a press conference at USDA's Annual Agricultural Outlook Forum, Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer did not say whether or not the administration would be able to support the $9 billion spending level. The Administration had agreed to the $6 billion level the House proposed on Feb. 13.
This week Schafer did make comments that if a deal can't be reached by March 15, an extension of the 2002 Farm Bill is more probable and a final farm bill would not be passed this year. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson opposes further extensions.
Congress was out of session this week but returns Monday.
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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