Farmers have come to the time of making key decisions about 2008 crops without the guidance of a U.S. farm bill, which remains bogged down in Congress primarily over a dispute with President Bush. It's time to put aside the politics and move forward. The health and welfare of the nation's farms are too vital to be put at risk by failure to pass a new farm bill.

A new farm bill, which establishes the federal relationship with agriculture from subsidies to conservation, has been in the works since last year. Both the House and Senate have versions. Subsidies for farmers have been an issue, with the president wanting them reduced while Congress is reluctant.

Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, speaking recently in Nevada, offered a measure of hope that an impasse over the farm bill can be broken.

"I think the odds are pretty good," Rey told The Associated Press after a speech to the National Association of Conservation Districts. He urged members to press their representatives to approve a new five-year bill before the current 2002 law expires.

Rey said he had been pessimistic about an agreement being reached, but the political climate changed when Bush threatened to veto any farm bill that raises taxes.

"I think a lot of people thought, 'Well, the administration is just blowing smoke,'" Rey said, noting it was the first administration since Nixon's in the late 1960s to draft its own proposal.

Because farm bills typically are written in Congress, Rey said, the thinking on Capitol Hill was "it doesn't matter whether they (the White House) are raising a squawk about the spending, about the tax increases, about the budget gimmicks -- they are going to sign whatever we send them."

"The president sent a pretty clear message that is not the case," Rey said.

But that doesn't mean Congress has played its final card.

One possibility is extension of the present farm bill for two years.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman says that is not the way to go.

"The word 'extension' continues to roll off the tongues of some folks who don't understand the severity of the situation. It's a little too late in the game and nonsensical to chuck all that's been done in crafting both pieces of farm legislation and go off on a new path," Stallman wrote in FBNews, an AFBF publication.

Stallman says doing so would "further erode the budget for farm programs, making it even more difficult in the future to write a bill with a meaningful safety net for America's farmers and ranchers."

Even worse, some in Congress are threatening to bypass an extension and allow farm policy to revert to permanent statutes last updated in 1949. That could cause major problems for the dairy and soybean industries, among others, and would eliminate newer programs designed to protect environmentally sensitive land and extra dollars for the fruit and vegetable industries.

"The consequences of not getting a bill would be catastrophic for agriculture. We would be reverting back to 1940s legislation. Almost all of our conservation programs would be lost. Many of the modern-day agriculture programs would not be funded," Rey said.

Echoing Stallman: "America's farmers and ranchers are urging the House and Senate to come to agreement on a final piece of legislation and the president to sign it into law. We can't afford to play politics any longer."

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