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Two major Farm Bureau initiatives remain on the table as the107^th session of Congress moves toward a close. At press time, the fates of emergency weather disaster assistance and an energy bill remained to be resolved.

Regarding disaster aid, AFBF Washington Director Dick Newpher said there’s still hope for the legislation in a lame-duck session. "I think there are enough sincere members of the House and the Senate who realize that there are difficult times in rural America that I think legislation still could be passed," Newpher said.

He believed the Senate legislation has the best chance of getting passed. "We still have the interior appropriations bill in the Senate that has disaster relief in it. If that bill could get passed during a lame duck session it could quickly be conferenced and passed by both the House and Senate and signed by the president."

AFBF is also actively urging Congress to complete work on the energy bill. The measure has been stuck for weeks in a House-Senate conference committee, but congressional staffers continued to attempt to reach a compromise on unresolved issues during the election recess.

"We need new energy legislation this year," said AFBF President Bob Stallman. "It is vital to our national security."

Major sticking points in the conference committee centered on the details of renewable fuels standards, on the issue of liability for past use of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), and the bill's electricity title.

"The renewable fuels standard that was passed by the Senate enjoys the support of a historic coalition of farm organizations, state and federal officials, major oil companies, renewable fuel producers and environmental groups," Stallman said. The provision calls for a federal ban on MTBE, elimination of the oxygenate standard and establishment of a renewable fuels standard that aims to increase renewable fuels production to 5 billion gallons per year by 2014.