By ERIC KROH, Courier/Medill News Service

WASHINGTON --- Despite prolonged disagreements in Congress over the farm bill, Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate's Agriculture Committee, said Tuesday the bill would get passed before the April 18 deadline.

The Iowa Democrat told reporters he did not see the bill being extended yet another time, which is what the White House asked Congress to do if the bill had not been passed in time for the growing season.

"We need to move ahead and try to nail down this 10 billion dollars," Harkin said, referring to the increase in the bill agreed upon by the House and the Senate that still needs financing.

The $286 billion farm bill, complex legislation which sets policy for agriculture, agriculture subsidies and a variety of nutrition and conservation programs, is supposed to be renewed every five years. Congress began work on it more than a year ago but has been tied up in disagreement ever since.

President Bush has threatened to veto any bill that entails a tax increase or does not include reforms favored by the White House. He signed a one-month extension last month to keep the existing subsidies from expiring.

Lawmakers are reluctant to trim direct payments to farmers to finance the bill, including $5.2 billion in automatic direct payments to farmers, at a time when crop prices are near record levels and household farm incomes are well above the national average.

Lawmakers will stay in conference committee through the weekend to get a bill out, Harkin said, calling the prospect of further extending the 2002 bill "disturbing."

Harkin said he was happy with the version of the bill currently proposed, though it is a compromise and contains $1 billion less than the $5 billion in conservation funding he was pushing for.

Negotiators trimmed the money slated for conservation programs to fund a permanent agricultural disaster assistance program for farmers.

Harkin said he was committed to creating a safety net for farmers, but was concerned that the World Trade Organization would find direct payments to farmers to be in violation of global free trade agreements. Conservation efforts would assist farmers in minimizing losses from disasters while still being in compliance with the WTO, Harkin said.

"The most vital, important aspect of what we're doing today is conservation," Harkin said. "We're strip mining our soil."

One lobbyist who represents farmers said passing a farm bill was possible, but not plausible.

Larry Mitchell, a partner at Kimmett, Senter, Coates and Weinfurter, a lobbying group in Washington, said senior agriculture committee staff members had talked with him in the past week about the prospect of adding a grain reserve to the farm bill, indicating the bill is still fluid.

Extending the 2002 farm bill yet again would be a disaster for the farm bill, however, because lawmakers would be hard-pressed to find time to write another bill during an election year, Mitchell said.

"What is really bizarre to me, given where (crop) prices are today, is how they can honestly expect $5.2 billion a year in direct payments," Mitchell said. "When you prioritize, how do you continue to put fixed payments on the high priority list?"

Part of this money could be better spent toward the $10 billion in conservation and disaster relief lawmakers are trying to find financing for, Mitchell said.

Contact Eric Kroh at

newsroom@wcfcourier.com.

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