Lincoln: Details of farm bill still important
Posted on Sunday, October 21, 2007
BENTON COUNTY - Senate talks have reached a compromise on a version of the 2007 Farm Bill, the details of which U. S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln hopes to be able to begin to study over the weekend, Lincoln, D-Ark., said Thursday.
The five-year, $ 257 billion farm bill is expected to have a mark up, or section-by-section review, next week by the Senate Agriculture Committee, said Lincoln, a member of the committee.
The bill increases loan rates for commodities by 6 percent and provides higher target prices for soybeans, barley oats and some other crops.
It encourages conservation practices with tax incentives and provides more money for rural development than did the last farm bill, which was passed in 2002.
The bill also implements Country of Origin Labeling, informing livestock producers and other consumers of the origin of their food.
"Our hope is that we will see legislative language and text by the end of today, perhaps, giving us this weekend to really review and look at what was actually put into the actual bill that we would mark up," she said.
Some senators have reached verbal agreements, but those latest agreements were still to be written down, and would have to be studied after having been written down, Lincoln said.
"I have to say that, particularly with the farm bill, as really with any legislation, the devil is in the details. I've been very pleased that we've finally got a little kindling under our fire here and have begun to move in terms of negotiating the compromises that need to happen in the farm bill."
A House version of the bill passed in July. Both versions will have to be reconciled before the bill can be passed and sent to the president, who may sign or veto it.
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