Farm bill conferees unveiled their draft conference agreement Thursday and said they expect to send the massive package to President Bush next week.

The bill (HR 2419), the product of months of often difficult negotiations, faces opposition from some members in both parties and possibly from the White House as well. But the conferees appear willing to take their chances.

“I am a happy man,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, after the nearly 18-month process.

House Agriculture Chairman Collin C. Peterson, D-Minn., said the conference report would be filed the morning of May 13, with a Rules Committee meeting to follow that evening and House floor debate May 14.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner said Thursday that he will not support the final farm bill.

“I’ve been monitoring the progress of the farm bill talks,” the Ohio Republican said. “And this continued to get worse this week, rather than better.”

That was unwelcome news for conferees, who will need significant support from House Republicans if they are to override an expected veto by President Bush, who is said to dislike the conference agreement reached late Wednesday.

The administration has expressed numerous concerns about the agreement conferees have pieced together over the past month. Bush has long sought tighter limits on farm subsidies and has opposed a proposed $3.8 billion farm disaster aid program and new benefits for the sugar industry. Most recently, the president has reiterated his concern that the bill is too expensive.

Boehner, who voted against the 2002 farm bill (PL 107-171), said he doesn’t think the new measure (HR 2419) “represents our best effort.”

“I think, in a time of high commodity prices, to be raising loan limits and target prices just really flies in the face of reality,” he said. “Secondly, when you look at some of the issues that, frankly, don’t belong in there, you know, this $200 million payment to Plum Creek Timber as part of a Nature Conservancy buyout strikes me as an egregious earmark. And some of the heady provisions are causing concern.”

At this point it is unclear whether supporters of the farm bill deal will have enough votes to override a veto.

But Adam Putnam, R-Fla., another member of the House GOP leadership, said he’s pretty sure supporters will be able to get the two-thirds majority needed to override.

“Based on what we understand the bill to be, we expect it will receive broad support,” he said. “A substantial number of Republicans have farming interests in their states.”

Putnam is one of those Republicans. His citrus and produce-growing constituents would benefit from more than $1 billion in new support for fruit and vegetable growers.

The conference agreement would prevent the wealthiest farmers from receiving government subsidies and would limit the amount of money farmers could get each year.

Lawmakers expect the bill’s total pricetag to be about $10 billion more than what it would cost to extend current law, although they are still awaiting a final score from tghe Congressional Budget Office.

Other previously agreed-upon highlights of the bill include changes in the ethanol tax credit and extension of the ethanol tariff; reductions in direct payments — subsidies farmers get regardless of crop prices — by $400 million; and the new disaster fund for farmers who lose crops to drought, flood or fire.

First posted May 8, 2008 1:42 p.m.