Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, says progress is being made without much fanfare on the Farm Bill. Funding issues are not quite complete, but Harkin is confident.
"Support is coalescing around a figure of $10 billion in new funding above baseline," Harkin says. "This is the figure the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees are working to secure. Even the Administration has indicated it could go as high as $10 billion in new funding."
Harkin is consulting with Senate and House conferees to erect the framework of a bill using that $10 billion as well as budget offsets and policy choices that are available within the farm bill budget.
"It's not an easy undertaking," Harkin says. "Yet I'm hopeful that with continued bi-partisan and bi-cameral cooperation we can draft a bill with strong farm income protection, critical investments in food assistance, conservation and rural development."
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