The U.S. House and Senate have voted to extend the farm bill for nine months, bringing a disappointing end to efforts by farm lobbyists to enact a new five-year farm bill in 2012.

The post-election “lame duck” session is now underway, and could run almost until Christmas, providing a good window for action on the Farm Bill.

USA Today's Nov. 8 editorial page commented on the effect of Hispanic voters on the election and the future of immigration enforcement.

Manuel Cunha has been fighting for three decades to persuade the federal government to provide more legal immigrant workers for farmers in California’s verdant San Joaquin Valley. So he was initially excited when President Obama announced in June that he would suspend the deportations of hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants.

With harvest season for many crops approaching, farms in Arizona need workers to help bring the crops in. But that help is getting harder to find, farmers say, as patchwork immigration laws and federal visa issues often get in the way.