Turning toward the Senate

The Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance and their champions on the House Agriculture Committee have delivered a great outcome for the farm bill that will be sent to full House. The House is expected to consider the farm bill the last week of July, but that timetable could be fluid. House leaders may not want to have more than a month go by before the Senate takes up its version of the farm bill.
Some believe the Iraq war debate in the Senate could limit consideration of the farm bill there, and one Farm Bureau lobbyist was quoted that it is a 50/50 proposition that the Senate will finish work on the farm bill by the end of the year. No serious work is anticipated from the Senate Agriculture Committee until September, and industry lobbyists say they have seen no language from Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Tom Harkin's office yet.
On a positive note for the industry, the House farm bill- still being marked up today - will put some "sideboards" around what happens in the Senate.