Farm Bill Update: Filibuster

It's been a while since I've written about the Farm Bill, and that's because nothing has happened. Well, that's not exactly true, but the net effect of all the "action" in the Senate amounts to not much at all.

Senator Harkin did take the bill to the floor about a month ago, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell could not agree on the number of amendments that the two sides could offer on the bill--most of the amendments had nothing to do with the Farm Bill. Then, after more than a week of no action, Reid subjected the bill to the parliamentary equivalent of execution when he called for a cloture vote and the vote failed. Cloture is the term used in the Senate to close debate on a given matter, and it is the means by which the Senate ends a filibuster. When the cloture vote failed, the Senate failed to end debate, in effect allowing the Republicans to "filibuster" the bill. There was an excellent story by David Herszenhorn in the NYT Week in Review about the widespread use of the filibuster in the Senate.

On Monday, National Journal's Congress Daily P.M. reported that Reid made an offer to McConnell to limit the number of amendments on the Farm Bill to five for the Democrats and ten for the Republicans. Apparently, both the wholesale reform measure proposed by Senators Lugar and Lautenberg and the more modest reform measure of Senators Grassley and Dorgan would be among the amendments. No word yet on whether McConnell has accepted the deal. I would say that the likelihood of the bill passing this year is in doubt. Before the Senate adjourns for the end of the year--in a mere three weeks--it must resolve at least eight spending bills, including the funding bill for Iraq. That's a tremendous amount of work, which would leave little time for other measures. In addition to the unresolved Farm Bill, the Senate also needs to act on a major energy bill. While it's possible that in the end of the year furry of legislative activity, the Farm bill might make it through, I'll be surprised if they get to it.

UPDATE: National Journal's Congress Daily P.M. is reporting today that Reid and McConnell clashed on the Senate floor this afternoon about the fate of the Farm Bill. Congress Daily also reported that Reid is going to file a second cloture motion on the bill to try to force the Republicans to agree to a deal to pass the bill. I seriously doubt the Senate will act on it before recessing until January.