Rep. Tim Holden's conservation subcommittee takes the first shot at legislating the 2007 farm bill today. A flurry of amendments to Chairman Peterson's mark is expected, but the big questions have to do with money. Demand will far exceed supply if Holden is constrained by his initial funding allocation, which prohibits taking funds from other titles of the bill, including Title I--which funds the commodity programs. For example, the $26 billion or so in "fixed direct payments" that taxpayers will be making over the next 5 years even if subsidy crop prices are sky high, as they are now.

Mr. Peterson has held out the possibility of additional conservation spending through the "reserve fund" established for agriculture. But that fund will exist only if money can be found by offsetting reductions elsewhere in the budget. It also presumes that conservation, rural development, food stamps and research will be competitive with all the other demands that are being made to fill nearly two dozen other reserve funds.

Anyone fancy meeting with the House leadership to press them to put conservation ahead of, say, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which has its own $50 billion reserve ready for funding if paid for by savings elsewhere?

Just give me a second here to check my schedule....Aw, damn, I'm busy.

Forever.