Farm Bill ... the View from Chuck Hassebrook, Center for Rural Affairs

The last time we wrote about the status of the Farm Bill, we asked "Where oh Where?" was it? The answer to that question is "stuck in the mud" ... White House "mud" to be more specific.

Now, Chuck Hassebrook, Ex. Director for the Center for Rural Affairs, is predicting a new opportunity to get the Farm Bill passed. "Sen. Tom Harkin has the opportunity to deliver the kind of Farm Bill he has always supported - one that strengthens, rather than undermines, family farms and rural communities," writes Hassebrook for the Des Moines Register.

Calling for a new alliance that would prioritize the rural economy in general, small businesses and small towns, Hassebrook continues,

"(Senator) Grassley has led the fight for payment limitations and Harkin has used his position as Senate Agriculture Committee chair to pursue reform. But both have been blocked. The (Bush) administration says the farm bill must do more to deny payments to certain high-income landowners. However, its proposals are far less effective than the payment-limitations reforms pursued by Grassley and Harkin."

Let us know what you think.