A House-Senate conference committee assigned to reconcile differences between the two versions of a new farm bill wasn't able to reach agreement before the current bill expired Sept. 30, reports AgAlert. That means close to 40 programs are left without funding until Congress passes a new bill.
Conference committee members have said they expect to make progress during the next several weeks and intend to pass a new bill by the end of the year, during the lame duck session following the Nov. 6 midterm elections.
"If lawmakers do not pass a new farm bill before the end of the year, then a completely new farm bill will have to be written in the next Congress — and that could be a problem," Josh Rolph, California Farm Bureau Federation federal policy manager, told AgAlert.
