The House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders emerge this morning from their latest conference meeting on the farm bill. From left, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla,. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn, and Senate Agriculture ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss. (in baseball cap). (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)

House and Senate Agriculture committee leaders will not reveal a farm bill framework until January, they said today after a one-hour meeting. They also stressed they made progress, which signals for finalization of a bill and its completion are positive.

The four principals — House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., House Agriculture ranking member Collin Peterson, D-Minn., Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Senate Agriculture ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss. — had “another productive meeting,” Lucas told reporters as the group emerged from a meeting room in the Longworth House Office Building.

“We're moving right down the pike,” said Lucas, who is chairing the conference. He added that the bill now needs to be vetted by the House and Senate Agriculture committee lawyers.

Stabenow said there is “no question” about whether the committees will come to an agreement to pass a bill in early January, but she also said that they would not release a framework agreement until then because it will be a “courtesy to our fellow conferees” to present it to them before releasing it to the public.

House members left Washington today until January 7.

There have been reports that Lucas and Peterson will return to Washington next week to negotiate with Stabenow and Cochran, who will be in Washington with the rest of the Senate until December 20. Lucas affirmed today that they would return if needed, but Stabenow said they would consult either in person or by telephone.

Lucas told K-101 Radio, a Woodward, Okla., station on Thursday that they have reached agreement on the commodity title including crop insurance and the nutrition title including food stamps, but when asked today if the group had moved on to other issues, Lucas quoted Stabenow, who has said, “It’s not done until it’s all done.”

The House passed an extension of the 2008 farm bill through the end of January by voice vote on Thursday, but the Senate has no plans to take up that measure.