(CQ Today) -- After months of stalemate, lawmakers will begin a formal farm bill conference Thursday, with House leaders backing a new bipartisan deal that sets a price tag for the bill and the offsets to pay for it. Under the agreement, new spending on agriculture programs would be limited to $6 billion above the $280 billion budgetary baseline for the bill (HR 2419), according to Jerry Moran, R-Kan., a conferee. The House on Wednesday voted, 400-11, to instruct conferees to oppose higher taxes to fund new farm bill spending. Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, the Agriculture Committee’s ranking Republican, said the additional $6 billion under the deal would not be offset by taxes. An aide indicated the savings could come from a proposal to require credit card issuers to report to the IRS payments they make to merchants, a way to help determine whether businesses are reporting all their income. House conferees may still have a difficult time in negotiations with their Senate colleagues. An aide to Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who will chair the conference, said senators were not familiar with the House proposal. Bush has said he will seek a one-year extension of the 2002 farm law if lawmakers cannot negotiate a final bill by the April 18 deadline. The conference committee is scheduled to meet today.
