After weeks of little progress, the Senate put its version of the 2007 Farm Bill on a fast track and passed it just before the holiday recess by a substantial margin, 79-14, according to the Wildlife Management Institute. The legislation still needs to clear a conference committee, in which differences between the House of Representatives (House) and Senate versions must be resolved. In addition, the conference committee will need to craft a final version of the legislation that is acceptable to the Administration. The White House has threatened a veto of the bill if it includes language approved in the House version that would raise taxes to underwrite some costs of the new legislation.

Drafting a final version that is acceptable to the House, Senate and the Administration could take a while. The conference committee will likely begin the task in mid-January when Congress returns from its recess.

In the meantime, an extension of the 2002 Farm Bill was passed to prevent expiration of many ongoing programs, including several important conservation provisions?Conservation Reserve Program (CRP),Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), Grassland Reserve Program (GRP) and Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP). Payments will continue on existing contracts for CRP, WHIP, GRP and WRP, but no new contracts can be executed until funding for these programs is reauthorized. The extension is effective until March 15, 2008, providing a little more than two months for the conference committee to craft a final version of the bill and to have it signed by the President.

Previous Farm Bills also have been subject to delays. The 1985 Farm Bill was enacted in late December of that year. The 1995 Farm Bill turned out to be the 1996 Farm Bill, enacted in April 1996.

A recent report by the Congressional Research Service, "Possible Expiration of the 2002 Farm Bill," provides a more detailed discussion of the impacts of delaying enactment of the new Farm Bill, along with a chronology of the Farm Bill's legislative history since 1973.