bassam haddad thank you. and david lesch at trinity.hank you.ç÷ >> woodruff: tonight we begin a series of reports on the unfinished business congress left behind when it took off for its august recess. among the issues remaining on the table: whether to extend the bush-era tax cuts, protecting the nation from cyber attacks, helping the postal service's fiscal picture, and a farm bill that would have provided emergency relief for drought- stricken areas. more than half the counties in the continental u.s.-- shown here in red-- have been declared eligible for federal disaster relief because of the drought. the farm bill is where we start tonight, with reporter daniel newhauser. he covers congress for "roll call." thank you for being here. >> thank you. with such a clear need out there, why didn't congress get this done on the farm bill? >> well, the major problem with it is that 80% of this bill funds the supplemental nutrition systems program known as food stamps. >> 80%? that is $400 billion. the house bill cuts $16 billion and that is

bassam haddad briefly before we go, the u.s.overnment continues to call on other members of the regime to defect. those who are closest to him, do they have much incentive to defect especially members of his aloe white sect? >> there's little incentive for people to defect especially members of aloe white sects. >> because? the ship will either sink or swim altogether and the community is within that ship even if they resent the manner in which the regime dealt with the uprising. >> is that because they feel that essentially if this regime goes down they are going down? >> it's not -- that is a good question. it's not just a feeling. there is a real fear right now, a projected fear that the aloe white community and other minority groups will actually have to pay the price for just being such on their id in terms of how they are identified. and unfortunately, the united states has done a lot more to provoke ther than actually push the opposition to do things such as eage dialogue in order to prevent a calamity. and that is actual