Once every five years, the massive -- and growing -- Farm Bill lumbers its way through Congress until it is passed into law, when it doles out funding for everything from barley subsidies to wetlands conservation.

This year, it's taking even longer than usual to meander through the legislative process, as two versions of the bill, each with a taxpayer tab in the hundreds of billions, are now being ironed out in a conference committee, well past the bill's intended September 2007 implementation.

But the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank will trade expediency for results. And if anything close to the Senate bill's $5.3 billion expansion for nutrition programs in the next 10 years passes into law, it will make a major difference in increasing benefits that have eroded since the welfare reform of the mid-1990s.

"While there are going to be all sorts of things in this legislation that one or another person will not like, it's been a long, hard road," said Dennis McManus, government and advocacy manager for the Duquesne-based food bank.

"I would hope people would look at the substantial improvements."

Those improvements include expansions in food stamps and The Emergency Food Assistance Program , as well as maintaining the commodity food program for low-income seniors.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is a member of the agriculture committee and has taken a particular interest in the nutrition aspect. Food bank Chief Executive Officer Joyce Rothermel called him "a leader" in the effort, and Mr. Casey and his staff have been in frequent contact with food banks across the state, in addition to paying attention to news from around the country.

"State after state, region after region, you heard the same story -- this is the highest demand for food in 20 years, 25 years," Mr. Casey said in a phone interview last week.

"There are a lot of pressures put on families and a lot of trauma from the changing economy. We've got to be there to help where we can."

For the food stamp program, the Senate version of the bill would increase benefits, raising the maximum asset limit to qualify for assistance from $2,000 to $3,500 per household. Also, it would allow families to deduct the entire cost of child care, and retirement and college savings accounts would not count against the asset limit. About $250 million a year in food stamps is spent in the 10 counties in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Increasing the number of people who qualify for food stamps decreases the burden on food banks -- which are supported by TEFAP and private donations.

"It's there as a safety net," Mr. McManus said of the food stamp program. "And we're more like a safety net for when those safety nets fail."

But TEFAP support for that net has been declining in recent years. Mr. McManus said Pennsylvania received $6.5 million worth of food from the program last year, down from $13.6 million in 2005. Any proposed increase wouldn't make up that gap, but would at least be an attempt to catch up with rising demand. As poverty rates have crept up in Allegheny County, especially among working poor, the food bank has been flooded.

And the real value of federal contributions has decreased even more rapidly due to inflation in food prices. A key strength of the House version of the bill, in addition to making the nutrition increases permanent, is a provision that indexes TEFAP increases for inflation.

The target date for passing the bill is March 15, the date when an extension of the provisions in the 2002 Farm Bill brokered last fall expires. The House and Senate versions of the bill must be merged in conference committee, and that must be signed by President Bush.

Mr. Bush has threatened to veto the bill, an attempt to shrink it in these times of economic trial, but Mr. Casey said he's picking the wrong fight.

"[Mr. Bush has] been on kind of a veto kick the past couple of months," Mr. Casey said, pretending "that he's some kind of fiscal traffic cop when he's the same guy that ran up the debt number from about $5.8 trillion to, what will be when he leaves office, $10 trillion."

The Senate version of the bill raises spending by about $12 billion over current levels, while the House, in a tentative deal with the Bush administration, has proposed a $6 billion increase.

Most of the concern from the public and Mr. Bush about the bill has been regarding excessive subsidies to large corporate farmers, not the nutrition . But Mr. Casey said he fears that a conference committee cutting binge might slash nutrition programs because they compose a large chunk of the spending increases.

If a compromise isn't reached by March 15, the laws would revert back to the original 1949 bill -- a time when food stamps didn't exist -- because that is permanent legislation, merely updated by subsequent farm bills. More likely, Congress would extend the 2002 bill's regulations once more, but Mr. Casey hopes it doesn't come to that.

"There's a sense of urgency that members of the House and Senate in both parties have," Mr. Casey said, "to get this done -- and get this done right."