Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 9/6/18

House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway and ranking member Collin Peterson both said following an hourslong meeting of the "Big Four" Agriculture leaders on Wednesday that lawmakers were waiting on Congressional Budget Office scores of certain provisions — and that the analysis will play a role as they work to land a compromise on the major points of contention. Those numbers are expected to arrive by this morning. The scores will be for the conference committee's use and likely won't be made public.

"We've got a bunch of ideas that we think might be the middle ground, but they aren't scored," Peterson said. "We're going to get together as soon as we get that scoring and it might help us resolve some stuff."

SNAP waivers discussed: Peterson said the leaders debated making changes to waiver requirements within the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but he stayed mum on what those conversations entailed. Reconciling the competing House and Senate approaches to SNAP remains the biggest hurdle to on-time passage of a farm bill.

Talk of progress: "I think today was the most productive meeting we've had," Peterson told reporters after the confab with Conaway, Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts and ranking member Debbie Stabenow, which followed the first public meeting of the full conference committee. "We got into it with each other a little bit, which we needed to do. That's part of the process."

An opening offer: Conaway had earlier presented a compromise proposal that he said extended across all titles of the bill. He too said the leaders' Wednesday afternoon meeting featured some "difficult conversations" about differences between the House bill, H.R. 2 (115), and the Senate version, S. 3042 (115).

Both Conaway and Peterson predicted that lawmakers have just over a week to reach a deal if the final legislation has a shot at making it to President Donald Trump's desk by the Sept. 30 deadline. "This system can move lightening quick if it wants to and glacier-like if it wants to," Conaway said.

Everybody got their speech: The three-hour meeting of the full conference committee featured opening statements from all 56 conferees — and zero debate. A central theme, however, was an emphasis on the importance of finding a compromise, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stepped in to say that the busy legislative calendar this month means that quick action is needed.