"We plan on dealing with the drought problem before we depart," Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) told reporters on a conference call. He said Republicans hadn't decided whether to make a drought package part of a farm bill, but a disaster-relief package "could go by itself."

Any farm legislation that clears the House would still have to be reconciled with Senate legislation, through a process known as a conference. Because that could take time, Mr. McCarthy said "timing for both may not work perfect so the disaster [bill] could go by itself, but none of that decision has been made."

Drought conditions continue to worsen throughout the U.S., pushing corn and soybean prices higher and making it harder for livestock operations to feed their cattle, pigs, chickens and turkeys.

The Obama administration and some lawmakers have been pressing House leadership to allow a vote on the farm bill because it contains measures that pay ranchers if their animals die from drought conditions and help cattle ranchers pay for grazing their cows.

Most of the current 2008 farm bill expires Sept. 30, but assistance programs for natural disasters expired in 2011.

The Senate passed its version of the five-year, $500 billion farm bill on June 21. The House Agriculture Committee approved its version on July 12, but House leadership still has not brought the measure up for a vote.

House Republicans are still weighing whether to advance a shortened one-year farm bill before the August recess.

"With the current farm bill set to expire at the end of September, it's crucial that we continue to provide certainty to one of the few bright spots in our economy over the past decade," Rep. Tim Walz (D., Minn.) said. "It's all the more crucial to our farmers that we do this as they are staring at cracked, dried-out soil resulting from one of the worst droughts in modern history."

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been scrambling to help livestock producers and farmers cope with drought conditions. Twice in recent weeks the USDA has opened up land for grazing and haying to help feed cattle, and the agency also reduced the interest rate for emergency loans to 2.25% from 3.75%.

As of Thursday, 17.2% of the U.S. was experiencing "extreme drought or worse," according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. That's up from 11.32% a week ago.

-Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@dowjones.com and Bill Tomson at bill.tomson@dowjones.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 27, 2012 14:09 ET (18:09 GMT)