'The drought is the worst that's ever happened in my lifetime,' said Russell Boening, 47, of Floresville, whose 2,000-acre farm of corn, cotton and wheat sorghum failed to produce any crops this year. 'We will be able to farm next year, but we need disaster assistance.'

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said Monday that obtaining federal drought assistance this year would be an 'uphill fight' but promised to keep working for it.

'I have every confidence that... even if we don't get it this year, we will get it next year,' Hutchison told a crowd of more than 1,200 at the Texas Farm Bureau's annual convention in Arlington.

The House and Senate, which will return Tuesday for the final week of the lame-duck session, have decided to send an unfinished budget to next year's Democratic-controlled Congress.

This week Congress is expected to approve continued funding for most federal programs at fiscal 2006 levels through mid-February because neither chamber has agreed on any of the new spending bills for the fiscal year that began in October, except those covering defense and homeland security.

Texas, the nation's No. 2 agriculture state, is reeling from the worst-ever drought, which caused an estimated $2.6 billion in crop losses and $1.5 billion in livestock industry losses this year.

Source: AFX News Limited