The first session of the 110 th Congress is expected to consider major agriculture and food legislation in an omnibus multi-year authorizing bill, commonly called the "farm bill." Federal commodity support, conservation, food assistance, agricultural trade, marketing, and rural development policies are governed by a variety of separate laws. However, many of these laws periodically are evaluated, revised, and renewed through an omnibus, multi-year farm bill. These policies can be, and sometimes are, modified or overhauled as freestanding authorizing legislation, or as part of other laws. However, periodic farm bills have provided Congress, the Administration, and interest groups with an opportunity to reexamine agriculture and food issues more carefully, and address them more comprehensively. The most recent omnibus farm bill, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 ( P.L. 107-171 ), and many of its provisions expire in 2007. Without new legislation, notably in the area of farm commodity and income support programs, permanent statutes will take effect. Most of these statutes were enacted decades ago and are no longer compatible with current national economic objectives, global trading rules, and federal budgetary or regulatory policies. These largely outdated permanent laws have been kept on the books by Congress in part to compel increasingly urban and suburban future Congresses to pay attention to national agricultural policy. For most other topics addressed in the farm bill, the authority to appropriate funds would end, and in some cases all program authority could terminate. The heart of every omnibus farm bill is farm income and commodity price support policy—namely, the methods and levels of support that the federal government provides to agricultural producers. However, farm bills typically include titles on agricultural trade and foreign food aid, conservation and environment, forestry, domestic food assistance (primarily food stamps), agricultural credit, rural development, agricultural research and education, and marketing-related programs. Often, such "miscellaneous" provisions as food safety, marketing orders, animal health and welfare, and energy are added. This omnibus nature of the farm bill creates a broad coalition of support among sometimes conflicting interests for policies that, individually, might not survive the legislative process. Among the groups lobbying Congress will be farm and commodity organizations; input suppliers; commodity handlers, processors, exporters, retailers, foreign customers, and competitors; universities and scientific organizations; domestic consumers and food assistance advocates; environmentalists; and rural communities. So, for example, farm state lawmakers may seek urban legislators' backing for commodity price supports in exchange for votes on domestic food aid—and vice versa. Farm bills and the programs they encompass are complex and intensely interactive. Changes to one program often have intended and more often unintended consequences for others. For example, a legislative change that raises corn prices is typically examined for how it might change the planting decisions of those who grow other crops such as soybeans, and, in turn, the cost of the support program for soybeans. Likewise, a change in the corn program can have major implications for producers who feed corn to dairy cows, beef cattle, and other animals; for sugar producers and food manufacturers who can use corn syrup in place of sugar for many products; for consumers, including those on limited food budgets; and for exporters and foreign competitors. The level and type of support provided also can affect farm equipment companies, agricultural investors and rural financial institutions, fertilizer and pesticide suppliers, and farm-dependent rural communities. Farm bill titles also are growing increasingly integrated. The conservation title, for example, includes provisions that affect commodity programs, and some of the commodity provisions likewise affect conservation. This integration means that one cannot simply look in a single title for all provisions that affect the topic of the title. Major external pressures on this farm bill, including efforts to encourage domestic energy independence and to respond to treaty obligations concerning agricultural trade, are likely to foster further integration of policies and topics. Although farm bills are considered only periodically, federal farm policy is an ongoing issue for many lawmakers. The 1996 farm bill was intended to guide agricultural support through 2002. But an unanticipated drop in commodity prices prompted Congress to begin the "next" farm bill debate in 1998, when it considered and passed the first of a series of ad hoc emergency assistance measures that pumped $20 billion in supplemental payments (called market loss payments) to farmers over three years (FY1999-FY2001), and ultimately led to the adoption of "counter-cyclical payments" in the 2002 farm bill. In July 2005, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns began a series of "Farm Bill Forums" held throughout the country. The public was invited to provide comments on six specific questions: 1. How should farm policy be designed to maximize U.S. competitiveness and our country's ability to effectively compete in global markets? 2. How should farm policy address any unintended consequences and ensure that such consequences do not discourage new farmers and the next generation of farmers from entering production agriculture? 3. How should farm policy be designed to effectively and fairly distribute assistance to producers? 4. How can farm policy best achieve conservation and environmental goals? 5. How can federal rural and farm programs provide effective assistance in rural areas? 6. How should agricultural product development, marketing, and research-related issues be addressed in the next farm bill? Following the forum series, Secretary Johanns has repeatedly stated the USDA's goal for a new farm bill is that it be "equitable, predictable and beyond challenge" in the WTO. Equitable relates to the distribution of benefits among farmers and commodities. Predictable relates to dependably providing assistance, particularly disaster assistance, which has been ad hoc over the past 20 years. Beyond challenge relates to full compliance with the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules agreed to by the United States and the entire 149-country membership of the organization. On January 23, 2006, then House Agriculture Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Ranking Minority Member Collin Peterson announced the beginning of a series of field hearings to review the 2002 farm bill with an eye to designing the next farm bill. With the 110 th Congress, the House and Senate Agriculture Committees face the challenge of enacting a 2007 farm bill before the year's end. The change in partisan control of the House and Senate has put Representative Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa in charge of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees (see Appendix B ). The Democratic party leadership has talked about adopting a pay-go budget policy, requiring any areas of increased spending to be offset by reduced spending in other areas. Adding to the committees' budget challenges is the likelihood of a somewhat lower spending baseline as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the future cost of current commodity programs under the scenario of current and projected high commodity prices. Several interest groups have already taken public positions on farm bill topics, especially related to commodity provisions and conservation. Both the American Farm Bureau Federation and National Farmers Union have strongly endorsed a continuation into the future of current commodity support programs. In contrast, the National Corn Growers Association wants to replace some commodity support provisions and crop insurance with crop revenue insurance plans. The American Farmland Trust put itself in a high-profile position with a proposal, addressing risk protection and conservation, endorsed by three former Secretaries of Agriculture from both political parties. Additional proposals can be expected, and Congress faces the need to adjudicate among interest groups competing for parts of an increasingly tight spending package that could be less than under current law and will certainly be less than what the stakeholders in combination would like to receive. For the last four years, including the forecast for 2006, crop and livestock marketing receipts generally have been strong, and in cases where prices have declined, government payments have largely made up the difference. Examples include large milk and cotton payments in FY2004, and large corn and cotton payments in FY2005. The result has been record high levels of net farm income and record low levels of farm debt compared to assets. Contributing substantially to the strong domestic farm sector was a rapid rise in the value of agricultural exports, from $53 billion in FY2002 to a forecast $77 billion in FY2007, a record high. The trade outlook is important to farmers because exports account for about 25% of the value of agricultural production, and about one-third of harvested acreage is exported. Farm income also is affected by other factors, not least government subsidies. USDA forecast data show 2006 net cash farm income of $66.6 billion. Though cash receipts in 2006 from the sale of crops increase, livestock receipts decline, and all production expenses increase. This leaves total net cash farm income 18% lower in 2006 than in 2005. Included in 2006 net cash income is $16.5 billion in direct government payments. These payments help to undergird the value of agricultural land and other assets, keep farm debt at favorably low levels, and stabilize farm operator incomes. While USDA has not published a farm income forecast for 2007, it will be influenced by expected high prices for several of the major commodities. Changes in farm revenues have impacts on rural communities and businesses that depend on the agricultural sector. Similarly, rural non-farm employment is important to the household income of many farms, particularly smaller farms. Food stamp program spending is largely related to general employment, and competes with agriculture programs in the allocation of funds available to the Agriculture Committees for the farm bill. Hence, food stamps could be prominent in the next farm bill, especially if there is a threat to commodity program spending under a tight budget rule. As with all areas of the federal budget, agriculture faces spending constraints. In FY2006, budget reconciliation trimmed $2.7 billion over five years (FY2006-FY2010) from USDA mandatory programs. For the 2007 farm bill, these constraints will begin to take shape with the start of the annual congressional budget process, when the House and Senate Budget Committees recommend spending levels for broad "functional" categories.