‘Secret farm bill’ primed for passage in debt deal

Lawmakers on the House and Senate Agriculture committees are trying to write a new five-year farm bill through the supercommittee process. The legislators are using the supercommittee to avoid what would be a more public, election-year debate in 2012, when the current farm bill expires and new legislation would be scheduled for writing, according to critics of the effort. “We call it the secret farm bill,” said one environmental activist, who worries that if the lawmakers succeed, it will prop up U.S. farm payments through 2017.  <more> Nov. 16, 2011 The Hill