Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. intends to hold a markup of the farm bill in April, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said today.

Following a speech to the School Nutrition Association, Hoeven told The Hagstrom Report that Stabenow had told committee members she wanted to hold the markup in March but that the Senate's work on budgetary matters interfered with that.

Senate Agriculture Committee ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss., after speaking to the same group, said he could not predict when the markup will be held. A Cochran aide said committee members are still waiting for “guidance” from Stabenow.

Stabenow's office could not be reached for comment. A receptionist in her Michigan office said that the Washington office was closed due to the weather.

Hoeven noted that a recent Congressional Budget Office score of the farm bill that passed the Senate in 2013 said the bill would save $10 billion less if it were passed this year and added, “We’re back to work to address that $10 billion.”

Hoeven also said he has already talked to Cochran and other southern senators about writing a bill that they can support. Southern senators opposed last year’s Senate-passed bill, and Hoeven said, “I felt we needed the southerners on board.”

Changes could be made to the crop insurance program or the countercylical program to make the bill more acceptable to the southerners, Hoeven said. But he added that the bill must not be “market distorting.”