Procedural Theory Meets Political Practice

In theory, when each house of Congress passes a bill on the same subject, the two bills go to a conference committee to thresh out the differences. The reconciled bill is passed by each house and the President signs it.

This long post from FarmPolicy on the current state of play on the 2007 farm bill shows how far we've deviated from it. Issues include payment limitations and means testing and even reform of the marketing loan program. Perhaps most important is how to pay for the new stuff in the bill (i.e. permanent disaster program, help for veggies, conservation). I wonder if the drive to do a stimulus package for the economy may not adversely impact the farm bill--tweaking the tax system to get more money for farmers may not fit well into the atmosphere of doing stimulus.