Despite falling just a few votes shy of seeing their payment limit reform included in the Senate version of the farm bill - Senators Chuck Grassley and Byron Dorgan have not given up on getting reform in the final legislation. Now they’re asking Senate Ag Chair Tom Harkin and Deputy Ag Secretary Chuck Conner to consider a possible payment limitations compromise dubbed “Dorgan-Grassley II.” A letter sent to Harkin and Conner notes the continued difficult in finding acceptable funding mechanisms that meet the demands for farm bill funding - and suggests the adoption of their four-point program might close the gap.

According to the letter - the four-point proposal would bring negotiators closer to a politically acceptable compromise by reducing payment limits and income limits only when prices are above target price - softening the impact of reduced limits on cotton, rice and peanuts - incorporating the Administration proposal to lower AGI limits, but with a feature to increase the savings by reducing payments on cash rented land owned by high income landlords - and incorporating the primary control and actively engaged in farming provisions of Dorgan-Grassley I.

The Senators say the Congressional Budget Office has estimated preliminary savings of 1.186-billion dollars over 10 years for the four-point program.