Chairman Tom Harkin of Iowa will call the hearing as soon as the committee disposes of several Agriculture Department nominations.

Getting to work soon on the farm bill was good news to committee member Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Rep. Tom Osborne, R-3rd, a member of the House Agriculture Committee. Both have been urging quick action on a new bill because of the problems U.S. farmers - especially Nebraska farmers - are experiencing under the current Freedom to Farm Act.

That bill was designed to end the dependence of farmers on subsidy programs for grain production and give them more control of planting decisions. But the removal of subsidies coincided with foreign increases in grain production, much of it subsidized by individual governments in hopes of driving U.S. farmers out of the world market.

Two of the six witnesses at today's first hearing will be Nebraskans: Lee Klein of Battle Creek, president of the National Corn Growers Association; and Keith Dittrich of Tilden, president of the American Corn Growers Association. Both groups believe current law must be changed but diverge on how to do that.

Osborne said Wednesday that the new farm bill "could determine who will be farming, and who will not, into the next decade."

He believes two key provisions must be in the new farm bill. He wants inclusion of a countercyclical payment structure to replace emergency market-loss payments because, "our producers need something they can count on. It is unconscionable for us to continue forcing our producers to live year-to-year without knowing what will be there for them."

Additionally, Osborne says, producers need strong and balanced conservation programs that assist commodity and livestock producers.