The 2007 Farm Bill is starting to look a lot like the 2002 Farm Bill.

On Tuesday, a House subcommittee will vote on a new farm safety net that looks an awful lot like the current safety net — one that serves more like a security blanket.

The proposal would modestly tweak the price guarantees that make some forms of farming about as risky as crossing at the light. It would keep in place the "three-legged stool" of counter-cyclical, loan deficiency, and direct payments established in the 2002 Farm Bill.

As a result, most farm spending would continue to flow to a handful of farmers in a handful of districts — farmers in just 19 congressional districts would continue to collect more than half of all farm spending. The House proposal would not link subsidies to environmental performance, as some members of Congress have proposed, or expand existing "conservation compliance" requirements to more lands or environmental challenges. And, most importantly, the House proposal would not reduce and restructure farm subsidies to help meet America's pressing energy, environment, hunger and health challenges.

It should be no suprise that the fox is getting second helpings from the hen house. After all, he isn't just guarding the hen house — he built the hen house!

Many members of the House Agriculture Committee represent the congressional districts that collect the lion's share of farm subsidies.

In fact, eight of the top ten congressional districts collecting about one-third of all farm spending between 2003 and 2005 are represented by legislators who serve on the Committee.

It should be no surprise that legislators like Jerry Moran (R-KS) (whose district ranked second in farm spending between 2003 and 2005) would support efforts to extend farm and food policies that provide little or no help to 90 percent of America's farmers.

What puzzles the Ruminant is that legislators like Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), who represents the Shenandoah Valley (and ranked 184th between 2003 and 2005), Tim Holden (D-PA) or Virginia Foxx (R-NC) would support extension of a farm bill that provided their farmers less than $20 million between 2003 and 2005.

During the same period, farmers in Steve King's Iowa district (6th on the list) collected $1.1 billion. Jeepers!

In fact, only 100 members of the House brought home more than $50 million between 2003 and 2005. But, those 100 or so members collected about 90 percent of all farm spending. That means that roughly 330 members of the House — including every member of Congress from Florida, New York and Pennsylvania — collected less than $50 million in farm payments between 2005 and 2005.

Those who hoped the 2007 Farm Bill would help many more farmers and communities might instead hope that the next Farm Bill will be written on the floor of the House — where the chickens have the foxes outnumbered. The Ruminant hopes that the House leaders will work together to avoid a floor fight that will pits farmers against farmers.