Be sure to check out the latest issue of our biweekly newsletter, The Watcher.

From the Roundtable: The U.S. Senate, which has been reluctant to tackle the issue of religious hiring rights, will now take up the matter following a recent federal court decision which upheld the right of the Salvation Army to consider religion when hiring employees that are paid with public funds.

The Agriculture Committee in the Senate is required under the FY06 budget reconciliation instructions to cut to cut $3 billion from mandatory agriculture programs. One of the programs at risk of being cut was the food stamp program, however today Senate Ag Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) dropped plans to cut the program by $574 million. They would have achieved their savings in the food stamp program by requiring families receiving non-cash state welfare assistance -- who are currently automatically eligible for food stamps -- to apply separately. This would have brought down the number of families who use the program. Instead, he will reduce the amount of money farmers can get in certain farm subsidy payments that are made in advance. According to CongressDaily, "The change in the percentage of direct payments a farmer can get early in the year raises the savings from $518 million in Chambliss' first plan to almost $1.1 billion. The impact is to deny farmers the use of that money during the production season. Farmers will continue to get the full direct payment promised under the 2002 farm bill minus a 2.5 percent reduction in all farm programs, but making the payment later in the year creates budget savings." NY Times Coverage