Time expiring for new US farm law--House ag chief

By Charles Abbott

WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - If lawmakers do not agree by next week on a spending limit for the new U.S. farm law, Congress will miss its defacto March 15 deadline to enact the law, the House Agriculture Committee chairman said on Friday.

Besides farm subsidies, the law governs public nutrition programs like food stamps, land stewardship, rural development and biofuels. The White House says the new law must tighten crop subsidy rules and cannot raise taxes.

The administration says it will accept a $6 billion spending increase over 10 years. Senators suggested a $12.3 billion increase, including a $5 billion disaster-aid fund. There were signs Congress might propose a $9 billion increase. When funding is agreed, lawmakers can decide crop support rates and whether to expand nutrition and stewardship programs.

"We're already into problem territory, right today," said chairman Collin Peterson to reporters, with three weeks remaining until March 15.

Congress would have to move quickly to pass the law by March 15 if there is spending agreement by Tuesday because of the time needed to draft legislative language, said Peterson, Minnesota Democrat.

"It's taking longer than we thought. We haven't given up," he said.

Negotiations for a spending limit began in earnest on Feb. 13, with a House proposal for a $6 billion boost, considerably less than the House and Senate backed in legislation last year.

The House said a $6 billion increase could allow steps like tighter payment limits and the first-ever program to protect farmer revenue from poor yields as well as low prices.

Peterson said he would rather see the farm program revert to the sky-high support rates of the 1949 farm law rather than extend the 2002 farm law. A short-term extension of some parts of the 2002 law expires on March 15, the same time congressional budget formulas would set a new, lower funding limit for farm supports.

Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said on Thursday that Congress probably would extend the 2002 law if it did not agree on a framework for the new farm law soon.

A press aide for the Senate Agriculture Committee chairman said the administration was not helping Congress find ways to pay for the farm bill.

"The administration should be working with Congress to move this crucial bill forward instead of telling us to extend current law," said Kate Cyrul, spokeswoman for the committee's chairman, Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat. (Reporting by Charles Abbott; Editing by David Gregorio)