"WASHINGTON -- A patchwork extension of federal farm programs passed as part of a larger 'fiscal cliff' bill keeps the price of milk from rising but doesn't include many of the goodies that farm-state lawmakers are used to getting for their rural districts."

"House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders who spent more than a year working on a half-trillion-dollar, five-year farm bill that would keep subsidies flowing had to accept in the final hours a slimmed-down, nine-month extension of 2008 law with few extras for anyone.

With the new Congress opening Thursday, they'll have to start the farm bill process over again, most likely with even less money for agriculture programs this year and the recognition that farm interests have lost some of the political clout they once held."

Mary Clare Jalonick reports for the Associated Press January 3, 2013. [2]

SEE ALSO:

"Congress Extends Farm Bill, Still Manages To Screw Sustainable Farmers" (Grist/Twilight Greenaway) [3]

"Fiscal Cliff Drama Produces an Awful Farm Bill Extension" (Grist/Tom Philpott) [4]

"Farm Bill Extension Leaves Out Many In Northwest" (Northwest News Network/OPB) [5]

"Farm Bill Extension Not Popular In Upper Midwest" (AP) [6]

"Farmers Frustrated By Farm Bill Extension" (NPR) [7]

Opinion: "Farm Bill Is One More Congressional Crop Failure: 200 Wiseguy Words" (Portland Oregonian) [8]

"Despite Farm Bill Extension, Unease Grips Rural America" (USA TODAY) [9]