Deal or no deal

One farm lobbyist I just spoke with said that it would beg belief to think the Senate Agriculture Committee could begin markup by Thursday or Friday. The lobbyist also said Harkin's doesn't appear to have a lot of backing within the committee, but no one has seen the alternative farm bill proposal that apparently has been put together by Sen. Conrad. With the Columbus Day holiday break next week, the Senate Agriculture Committee will be under the gun to move quickly after the break. Here is the link from CQ talking about possible offsets to provide funding above baseline for the farm bill.