Congress was enjoying the first week of a two-week break last week without having reached a final Farm Bill proposal. Despite some progress on the topic of how funding issues would be resolved, there were several stumbling blocks to getting a bill finished before the most recent extension expires April 18. In signing the latest extension of the 2002 bill March 15, President George Bush said he expected Congress to finish its work quickly or pass a one-year extension.

“While long-term extension of current law is not the desired outcome, I believe the government has a responsibility to provide America’s farmers and ranchers with a timely and predictable farm program—not multiple short-term extensions of current law,” Bush said. “Without a predictable policy, agriculture producers will be unable to make sound business decisions with respect to this year’s crops.”

He added that any Farm Bill which raises taxes or doesn’t include meaningful reform will be vetoed if it reaches his desk.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-IA, chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and the Senate-House conference committee on the bill, said last week he is optimistic that progress is being made.

“Talks continue on a bipartisan basis between Senate and House negotiators and each day brings us closer to resolution,” Harkin said. “Although a new bill is within reach, Congress needs more time to reach agreement and obtain the necessary cooperation from the White House. There is still a considerable amount of work ahead before we can pass a bill. This short-term extension will ensure America’s farm and nutrition programs continue until the new farm bill is completed.”

Last week, Congressional leaders reached an agreement on key issues which would have pushed funding $10 billion over baseline projections over the course of a 10-year period. The plan had the backing of Harkin, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-MN, ranking minority member Bob Goodlatte, R-VA, and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-GA, who serves as ranking minority member of the Senate Ag. Committee. However, the proposal quickly drew fire from key members whose support is going to be critical for getting the plan passed. The proposal would cut proposed funding for a permanent disaster program from the current level of $5.1 billion to $2.2 billion over a five-year span. That plan drew fire from dissenters who had worked hard to include permanent disaster funds in the Farm Bill.

Among those is Sen. Max Baucus, D-MT, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who pronounced the package “dead on arrival.” Sen. Kent Conrad, D-ND, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said the leadership’s proposal is “unacceptable.”

“I won’t vote for or help to fund any agreement that does not do disaster assistance right for our farmers in need,” Baucus said in a tersely-worded statement issued immediately after the plan was announced.

However, Conrad said negotiators are “a long way from the end of the story” in terms of final numbers, but he emphasized that the Harkin-Peterson proposal could threaten Senate Finance Committee talks over funding the farm bill since the disaster money is a priority for him and Baucus.

“One would have hoped that after all this time, they would have come up with something that wouldn’t have put at risk the financing package,” Conrad said.

Still, he said, “It’s very evident that these are negotiating numbers.”

Harkin has opposed the disaster program, saying it could be vulnerable to abuse, but has agreed it will be part of the final package in some form. Harkin said the latest proposal does a good job of allocating funding across the entire Farm Bill, from nutrition programs to rural development and conservation.

Since passage of House and Senate Farm Bill packages, the two bodies have been wrangling over how to pay for the increases in funding required by the different plans. The White House claims both chambers enacted tax increases and funding gimmicks to pay for the programs which have been included, drawing veto threats from the president. The process has been complicated by the absence of House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel, D-NY, who was hospitalized two weeks ago with the flu and failed to return to Washington, D.C., before the Easter recess. Negotiators are waiting for Rangel and Baucus to find the extra money for the bill.