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With the April 18 deadline to pass a new five-year farm bill fast approaching, Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said negotiations are moving forward, but he questions whether negotiators can come to an agreement by that date.
April 18 is when a temporary extension of the current law expires.
The negotiations, according to Smith, involve looking for the offsets needed to pay for the increases in the bill, including automatic payments to farmers and a permanent disaster payment provision.
He said negotiators have narrowed the gap to about $4 billion in offsets on the estimated $280 billion five-year bill.
"I would hope that we could get something by April 18," he said. "But that may be too high of a bar to meet and we may have to extend it for another month. I would hope that would be enough time to wrap up negotiations and get it done."
The White House has commented that it may push for a two-year extension instead of a one-month extension.
Smith, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee, said the House passed its version of the Farm Bill last July. The Senate passed its version in December.
"I'm not quite sure what the Senate accomplished over those almost six months other than sending a message that they just couldn't adopt what the House had," Smith said.
He said he is hopeful that House conferees to the House/Senate conference committee on the Farm Bill will be named in the near future.
"That will be a good sign that negotiations are probably winding up," he said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said she is not willing to appoint the conference members until there is an agreement on the offsets.
Smith said he doesn't know what the consequences are about Congress' inability to pass a new Farm Bill yet, especially now that planting season is drawing near. The current Farm Bill originally expired on Oct. 1 of last year, but has been extended.
"We really don't know what those consequences are, but producers just want to know what to expect," he said.
"Fortunately, crop prices being what they are, it has given a little bit of stability even without passage of a Farm Bill."
Smith, though, said that with farmers planting fewer corn acres this year than last year, cattle feeders are concerned about how much corn will cost them if supplies get tight.
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