FARM BILL NEGOTIATIONS INTENSIFY AS DEADLINE APPROACHES

News Date March 10, 2008

       Congressional agricultural leaders and the administration continued negotiations on the 2007 farm bill last week with no breakthrough deal in sight yet. Lawmakers are struggling to reach a compromise before March 15 when the current farm bill expires. 
       The negotiators are considering a plan that would provide $10 billion in additional farm bill spending over ten years, but have not decided how the funding would be allocated or where the money will come from. The administration has repeatedly threatened to veto the farm bill if it includes any tax increases. On March 4, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) proposed a package of revenue offsets to pay for the additional $10 billion in funding. The proposal contains a variety of recommendations, such as changing Medicare reimbursement rules to pay for the additional farm bill spending. Meanwhile, jurisdictional disagreements arose between the congressional finance committees and the agriculture committees over who would control the money. 
       Unless a financing deal is reached this week, Congress will be faced with extending the current March 15 farm bill expiration date or the permanent 1949 farm law will go into effect. Several congressional leaders have said they will only support a short-term extension of one month or less. Last week, USDA released a document which outlined what would happen if a new farm bill is not enacted or an extension of the 2002 farm bill is not approved by March 15. (Contact: Charlie Ingram)