Some recent press reports capture where things are at on the Farm
Bill:

Congressional Quarterly reported Monday that "Senate leaders are
zeroing in on a deal to limit amendments to the 2007 farm bill,
meaning the measure could be back on the floor as early as next
week....If Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, succeed in
reaching an agreement on amendments, the Senate could complete work
on the bill in as little as two days, an aide said. Nevertheless,
chances are bleak that House-Senate negotiators could reconcile the
two chambers' very different versions by year's end, let alone get
the measure cleared for President Bush in the short pre-Christmas
session."

Reports conflict, but the deal could involve each side offering, for
example, up to 10 amendments. Some 280 amendments to the Farm Bill
were proposed by Senators before their Thanksgiving break.

Reuters reports that a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid sent an email saying "In an effort to complete Senate action on
the farm bill this session, Senators and staff are working over the
Thanksgiving recess to reach a deal that allows debate and votes on a
limited set of amendments."

The Grand Forks (ND) Herald reports that Rep. Collin Peterson, who
Chairs the House Agriculture Committee, told farmers Monday that he
won't support an extension of the current Farm Bill if Congress can't
finalize a new one. From The Herald: "Peterson said he's hopeful that
the Senate will produce a bill in December, and differences with the
House could be hammered out quickly in conference committee....'We
could get this all done in January,' Peterson said."

Columnist Alan Guebert wrote Sunday that "Even if the public pressure
works and the Senate approves the farm bill shortly after it returns -
- a massive `if' given the bitter partisanship in that chamber -- it
must be meshed with a very different House farm bill before the
entire, rancorous process begins again."

The implications if Congress does not pass a new Farm Bill? As the
Los Angeles Times reported recently, "subsidies would continue for
the major crops: rice, wheat, cotton, corn and soybeans. But funding
for other smaller programs, including two conservation programs for
wetlands and grasslands, would run out." The Wetlands Reserve
Program and Grassland Reserve Program are two of USDA's most
successful conservation programs that benefit wildlife, but both are
set to expire without a change in current law.

Duane Hovorka