The Farm Bill passed by the House and Senate in late March and signed by President Clinton 0n April 4, 1996, contains many of the same provisions as the Agricultural Reconciliation Act of 1995 (ARA-95, evaluated in our last issue). The 1996 bill, the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act, also has some significant differences. Most notably, "permanent law" provisions for price support authotity and the Farmer Owned Reserve were only suspended, and were not eliminated. Soybean loan .rate provisions were changed, implying an approximate 34 cents/ bushel increase in the loan rate over the near term. Also, important conservation and environmental provisions that were not in ARA-95, were included in the FAIR Act: