Senate leader asks White House help on farm law

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senators are looking for ways to pay for a $10 billion spending increase in the new U.S. farm law, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Monday, asking for more assistance from the White House.

"We need to have the White House more engaged in this, more so than they have been," Reid said while outlining the Senate agenda for the next few weeks.

Congress is six months behind schedule to pass an omnibus farm bill that would spend as much as $290 billion over five years on public nutrition, land stewardship, crop subsidies, biofuels and other programs. Nutrition would get two-thirds of the money.

Work on the bill has been slowed by disputes over jurisdiction over some land stewardship work and whether to include a stand-by disaster relief program. Nor was there agreement over spending cuts or new revenue to pay for the bill.

President George W. Bush says he will veto the farm bill if it increases taxes, uses budget gimmicks to disguise overspending or fails to make farm-program reforms.

The White House says, if there are sufficient reforms, it will allow a $10 billion increase from levels already going to agriculture.

"We've cut back to the president's numbers. Now what we're working on are the offsets," said Reid.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, said Congress should wrap up work on the farm bill because the spring planting season is at hand.

(Reporting by Charles Abbott; Editing by Walter Bagley)