Influence Alley

The Senate may have breezed through their markup in under five hours, but the House spent almost an hour debating their very first amendment. The discussion was about dairy producer margin protection.

"We only have 99 amendments to go," House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas said to laughter in the middle of debate on this first provision.

At that pace, and with food stamp issue looming large, the House may deny Congress the opportunity to enact major legislation before the election.

As expected, much of the Wednesday's farm bill markup has been dedicated to debate over cuts to food stamps.