Despite the differences between the farm bills passed by the House and Senate, the chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee said she wanted to work with her House counterparts to draft new five-year farm legislation that would continue agriculture programs set to expire Sept. 30.
“We are willing to take what they give us and work with the chairman and ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee,†the chairwoman, Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, said in a conference call with reporters on Monday. “Time is of the essence, and we need to move forward on this.â€
Ms. Stabenow said the Senate was still waiting for the House to send over its bill so the two chambers can conference and begin working out their differences. She reiterated her opposition to the legislation passed by the House.
The 608-page farm bill the House passed last week was the first since 1973 not to include a food stamp program.
The 216-to-208 vote saved House Republican leaders from a rerun of the stunning defeat of a broader version of the bill last month, but it left the fate of the food stamp program uncertain. The program, which normally makes up about 80 percent of the farm bill and costs nearly $75 billion a year, has been a constant target for House conservatives who say it has grown too large. About 47 million Americans receive food stamps.
House Republicans have proposed cutting about $20 billion from the program. Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader, has promised to “act with dispatch†to pass a separate food stamp bill in the future, but has not given a timetable.
The Senate passed its version of the farm bill, which included the food stamp program, in May, and Ms. Stabenow said the Senate would not accept a bill that did not include the program. President Obama has also threatened to veto any bill that does not include food stamps.
The House and Senate bills both include fundamental changes to agriculture provisions in the current law. Both would save billions of dollars by consolidating or cutting numerous farm subsidy programs, including the $5 billion paid annually to farmers and landowners whether they plant crops or not. The money saved by eliminating those payments would be directed into the $9 billion crop insurance program, and new subsidies would be created for peanut, cotton and rice farmers.
Both bills add money to support fruit and vegetable growers, and restore insurance programs for livestock producers that expired in 2011, leaving thousands of operations without disaster coverage during last year’s drought.
But the bills also differ on major issues besides food stamps.
The House bill includes a new proposal to repeal a provision in the current farm bill, called permanent law, that causes farm programs to revert to 1949 price levels if a new farm bill is not passed. Congress has traditionally maintained the provision to force lawmakers to pass a bill or face large increases in farm program expenditures. Without the provision, many lawmakers and farm groups fear there would be no incentive for Congress to pass a farm bill on time.
The Senate is opposed to repealing the permanent law provision.
The House bill would make substantial changes to a dairy program that limits the amount of milk produced and sold in the United States. Dairy farmers oppose the measures, saying they would result in a loss of revenue.
The House bill also includes a provision, added by Representative Dan Benishek, Republican of Michigan, that would require additional economic and scientific analyses before a sweeping 2010 law to improve the food safety system goes into effect. Food safety advocates say the provision would effectively halt implementation of the law.
