The President vetoed the Farm Bill Wednesday morning (May 21). The
House voted hours later to override the veto on a 316 to 108 vote (a
two-thirds vote is needed in each house).

However, it was discovered that through a clerical error the bill
that arrived on the President's desk (and was vetoed) was missing
Title III (Trade) from the bill passed by Congress.

House and Senate leaders are now discussing how to fix the problem.
The House re-passed the Farm Bill (complete with Title III, and under
a new number, HR 6124) on a 306-110 vote Thursday morning. The Senate
voted 82 to 13 to override the veto of the original (flawed) bill
Thursday afternoon.

House Agriculture Committee Chair Collin Peterson and Ranking
Republican Bob Goodlatte issued a statement indicating that with the
veto override votes, 14 of the 15 Farm Bill titles are now law.
Senator Saxby Chambliss warned Senators that they might have to re-
pass the corrected legislation as the House did.

One way or another, we expect to have a final Farm Bill in the next
few days, including the trade title (sooner or later).

As we noted last week, NWF opposed the final version of the Farm bill
because it will reduce funding for land conservation programs and
fails to enact either the House or Senate-passed "Sodsaver" provision
to eliminate incentives to break out even the most marginal of native
grassland areas. We are putting together a summary of the final bill
and will share that with you soon.

Duane Hovorka