Leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee this week will seek to get a strong bipartisan vote for their farm bill draft from the panel, giving the measure momentum as it heads to the Senate floor in the following days.

If the “waters of the United States” rule became law, it would “freeze up” the use of farmland as landowners try to determine “whether every minor drainage ditch, dry arroyo, and nearby puddle is covered by the Clean Water Act,” farm groups said in an amicus brief filed in federal court in North Dakota.

The Senate Agriculture Committee’s draft farm bill would make additional improvements for dairy producers and the Agriculture Risk Coverage program while expanding the Conservation Reserve Program and renewing a research foundation and other popular programs that are slated to run out of money when the current farm bill expires.

Trade was a major topic at this year’s World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa, where USDA Undersecretary Greg Ibach and Gregg Doud, chief agriculture negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, were among the speakers. But other topics, including a Foot and Mouth Disease vaccine bank, were up for discussion.

A bill to expedite permitting for broadband projects on federal land easily cleared the House Natural Resources Committee Wednesday, cheering advocates of rural broadband.

Leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee are rushing to finalize agreement on a bipartisan farm bill with an eye toward getting it out of the chamber this month to set the stage for negotiations with their House counterparts.