Jerry Hagstrom and Chris Clayton, reporting for DTNag.com, reported
today that "Democratic Congressional leaders Tuesday agreed to find
ways to pay for new spending in the farm bill by Friday, so a bill
might be finished this spring. House Ag Committee Chairman Collin
Peterson said the bill likely will not be fully done by March 15, but
lawmakers should be able to get the major policy decisions hammered
out by then."

The reporters said "an agreement to bring this farm bill to
conclusion was one of the main goals of a meeting between agriculture
and tax-writing committee leaders and top Democratic Congressional
leaders Tuesday night. Besides finding a cost figure that members of
Congress could agree upon, lawmakers have to find a way, which
appeals to the House and Senate, to pay for added expense, and that
then can be sold to the White House."

They quoted House Agriculture Committee Chair Collin Peterson (D-MN)
saying "the biggest thing that happened was a general agreement to
try to have the offset done by Friday. The White House is getting
involved in trying to define what the offset should be."

The House has not yet named its conferees on the Farm Bill, and based
on press reports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will not do that
until they are closer to reaching a final agreement on the bill.

See the whole story at: www.dtnag.com/dtnag

--Duane Hovorka