Washington, DC – Congressman Mac Thornberry today announced that the House has passed H.R. 5813 to provide a clean extension to the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 through April 25, 2008.  “The new Majority in Congress has made a habit of waiting until past the last minute to pass important legislation and apparently this year’s Farm Bill will be no exception,” said Thornberry.

“For many farmers in Texas crops are already in the ground or important business decisions are ready to be made, they need to know the rules of the game,” noted Congressman Thornberry.  “We are fortunate to have good Texas representation on the Conference Committee, but time is clearly running out for any of the new or controversial aspects of the various Farm Bill proposals to be resolved.”

“I would like to be optimistic that between now and April 25 this will get settled,” concluded Thornberry.  “But too often in this Congress what could be a good bipartisan bill has been sacrificed to satisfy the Majority’s appetite for more taxes or some partisan agenda.”

-30-