Brownfield Network: Senate action on farm bill stalls, extension may follow

Friday, November 16, 2007, 2:35 PM

by Peter Shinn

Senate consideration of the next farm bill has been pushed back until December at the
earliest after a bid to invoke cloture and end debate on the measure failed Friday on a 55 to
42 vote. 60 votes were required to invoke cloture.

Friday's development came on the heels of an announcement Thursday by two prominent
House Republicans about plans to introduce legislation extending the current farm bill for a
year. One of those lawmakers is ranking House Ag Committee Republican Bob Goodlatte,
who said his move is the direct result the Senate’s failure to resolve a dispute over
amendments and pass a farm bill.

"The longer they take to work that out, the more essential it is that we have an extension,"
Goodlatte told reporters Thursday.

Kansas Representative Jerry Moran, ranking Republican on the House Ag Subcommittee on
General Commodities and Risk Management, is co-sponsoring the legislation to extend the
current farm bill. During an impromptu visit Friday to the National Association of Farm
Broadcasting annual convention in Kansas City Friday, Moran told Brownfield an extension of
the current farm bill is now inevitable.

"Even though the bill that Congressman Moran introduced may not become law, at some
point and time some form of an extension will have to pass Congress," Moran insisted. "It's
probably a couple of sentences in a piece of legislation that must pass at some point and
time," he added. "It will come - there is just simply no alternative."

But House Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson disagreed with Moran's assessment.
Peterson told farm broadcasters his he's not at all excited about extending the current farm
bill.

"I think it's a bad idea to be even talking about it, because if we end up with any kind of an
extension we're going to lose momentum," Peterson said. "And once that happens, we're
probably going to be dead in the water until after the next Presidential election.

In fact, Peterson said he’s convinced the real reason for the Senate stalemate on the farm bill
has little to do with amendments. Instead, Peterson suggested the Senate's delay on farm
bill action is being driven by President Bush's veto threat.

"Somehow or another he convinced the Republicans he's going to veto it," Peterson
explained. "And I think that causes them bigger political problems than not getting it done."

Most political observers would probably agree that President Bush is unlikely to rescind his
veto threat if the Senate does pass a farm bill and the measure makes it into a House–
Senate conference committee. But Peterson said he’s confident, once the farm bill is in
conference, he can reach a deal with President Bush to avoid a veto, though Peterson
wouldn't say how.

"If we get to conference, I think we can work with the President - I think we could come up with
a bill that we could all get behind - I really believe that could be done," Peterson stressed.
"I've got some ideas on how to go about that that I'm not going to talk about yet."

For his part, Moran said Friday he'd also prefer it if the Senate passed a new farm bill. And he
noted a wide range of interests, both urban and rural, are interested in implementing what he
described as "so-called reform" of the farm bill. Indeed, Moran said the farm bill extension
measure he and Goodlatte introduced Thursday is aimed at nudging the Senate into taking
action.

"The desire on my part in introducing this bill today is to send a message to those people
that want to change the farm bill that we've got to get our act together to get it done," Moran
said.

Related Links:
House Agriculture Committee
National Association of Farm Broadcasting

Peter Shinn reports (1 min 55 sec MP3).