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The article reports that two U.S. House Agriculture Committee leaders have introduced legislation to allow more small farmers to qualify for farm programs. The measure, authored by House Agriculture General Farm Commodities Subcommittee Chairman Bob Etheridge and ranking member Jerry Moran, clarifies language in the 2008 farm bill that ends some subsidies to farmers with only 10 acres of land or less.

The article reports that a U.S. House Agriculture subcommittee has voted to extend the 2002 farm bill's commodity title in the new farm bill rather than make the changes in target prices and loan rates for crops as proposed by Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson. Besides rejecting changes in target prices and loan rates, the Agriculture General Commodities and Risk Management Subcommittee has rejected proposals to impose tougher payment limitations on farm subsidies.

The article reports that opponents of current farm policy are going to get their chance to have their proposals debated. U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson said that he expects the Agriculture General Farm Commodities Subcommittee to debate and possibly vote on the alternatives that will include the bill introduced by Representatives Ron Kind and Jeff Flake which would end all crop, dairy and sugar programs and replace them with spending on rural development.

The article informs that U.S. House Agriculture General Farm Commodities Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Moran, said on Monday that he believes U.S. President George W. Bush will ask the U.S. Congress to cut $ 14 billion to $ 18 billion from the agriculture budget over the next 10 years. Moran talked to reporters after telling the American Farm Bureau Federation convention in Charlotte that farmers and ranchers will have to fight hard to maintain the "integrity" of the 2002 farm law. Moran said the House Agriculture Committee will begin holding hearings on the next farm bill this year with a goal of writing a bill in 2006, but that he is not certain it will be finished before the 2006 elections.

Reports on United States House Agriculture General Farm Commodities & Risk Management Subcommittee member Calvin Dooley's comments on the Budget Committee's deadline for the Agriculture Committee to rewrite the commodity title of the 1996 farm bill. Timetable for the rewrite; Dooley's comments on the U.S. Senate's stance toward the rewrite.