House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas said Thursday that he had been assured by Speaker John Boehner that the farm bill remains part of the year-end “big picture” for Republicans and the promise of $35 billion in 10-year savings “has gotten somebody’s attention.”

The Oklahoma Republican underscored that the fate of his bill –first reported from his committee in July—remains unclear still even to him. But he said he had talked with Boehner directly on the question Tuesday after the House returned from the November elections.

“He assured me that was on their agenda and gave me the impression that it was one of the issues that will be addressed in the big picture sense…I assume he means sequestration and taxes,” Lucas told POLITICO. “When the speaker answered my question, the way he acted, led me to believe—I’ll put it that way—that they are focused on the big picture and this is one of those elements. No more specifics than that.”

“Whether it is part of the `bridge’ –he’s used that phrase before—to the ultimate thing I don’t know,” Lucas said. “But clearly our $35 billion in the House package in savings has gotten somebody’s attention.”

The chairman’s comments, in a brief hallway interview, echo remarks earlier this week by Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, the ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, who also argued that the GOP should be more mindful of the potential savings which could be used to ease the pressure for automatic spending cuts at year’s end.

“Some way, somehow we need to get a five year farm bill passed,” Roberts said. “There are an awful lot of farmers and ranchers and their lenders out there now who are sort of in financial purgatory.”

Separately, in an interview with AgriTalk radio, Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture panel, warned that the GOP faces a real fight if it tries to pass a simple one-year farm law extension instead of the full five year plan.

“I still am hopeful, Peterson said. “I really think they want to get this off their plate by the end of the year.” But the notion of a one-year stopgap measure—which would leave dairy farmers without the added protection Peterson gas in the five year package—is a non-starter, he said.

“I am absolutely 110 percent against a one year extension and I will do everything in my power to stop it,” Peterson said. “That is a bad idea.”