The U.S. Senate is poised to begin voting Tuesday on the first of 40 proposed amendments to the 2007 Farm Bill.

Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., announced Monday that the Senate would begin business Tuesday with three hours of debate on the Lugar-Lautenberg amendment. Salazar was serving as temporary floor manager for the Farm Bill on Monday. Following debate, said Salazar, the Senate would proceed with a vote on the Lugar-Lautenberg amendment.

If passed, the amendment would scrap most of the existing federal commodity support systems and replace them with a new form of crop insurance.

A similar amendment to the U.S. House Farm Bill, introduced by Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., failed to pass in July. This version in the Senate is widely expected to have the same fate.

The Farm Bill has been on the Senate floor since the first week of November but has been stalled repeatedly by an inability of Senate leadership to agree to a limit on amendments. That deadlock was broken last week when an agreement was reached that will allow 20 amendments for Republicans and 20 amendments for Democrats.

Just before the Senate adjourned on Monday, Salazar said the Republicans had filed their 20 amendments, but Democrats had only filed 5.