This story was updated at 4:25 p.m. EDT.

The House is planning to take up a drought relief bill next week before adjourning for its August recess, aiming to package legislation to aid the parched Midwest with a one-year extension to the farm bill, the House Rules Committee announced this afternoon.

Earlier in the day, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the vehicle for the extension was still in flux and suggested that a drought relief bill could also move separately to avoid hurdles in a Senate conference.

The House plans to take up a drought relief bill "before we depart," McCarthy told reporters on a press call earlier this afternoon. The House is scheduled to remain in session until Aug. 3, after which lawmakers expect to depart for a five-week recess that would not bring them back to Washington until Sept. 10.

Later in the day, the Rules Committee announced a hearing Tuesday to take up a combined farm bill extension and drought relief package.

Asked about combining a drought package with a one-year extension to the farm bill, which is set to expire Sept. 30, McCarthy said that option was on the table, but he suggested such an approach may be too time-consuming because it would require forming a conference committee with the Senate, which already has passed a five-year farm bill extension. The House may instead decide to move a stand-alone drought relief bill, he said.

Critics of the farm bill crafted by the House Agriculture Committee pounced on reports today that drought relief may spur the House to take up a one-year extension to get to conference with the Senate's larger package, accusing lawmakers of trying to circumvent a House floor debate on the bill.

"Calls to enact a nearly trillion-dollar Farm Bill without debate and without amendment are a brazen end-run around democracy and a cynical exploitation of the drought," Taxpayers for Common Sense said in a blog post today.

The Environmental Working Group's Scott Faber called the plan a "cynical bait-and-switch [that] would deny House subsidy reform champions their chance to offer long overdue reform amendments with broad bipartisan support."

McCarthy did not say what measures could be included in a drought relief bill, but he noted that livestock producers have been especially hard hit by rising feed prices.

A federal insurance program for livestock producers expired last year, making their plight particularly severe compared with other growers who can rely on federal crop insurance programs.

Senators last month passed their five-year farm bill on a bipartisan vote, and a separate long-term measure emerged from the House Agriculture Committee on a 35-11 vote two months ago. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) earlier this week pointed to the ongoing Midwest drought as a reason for the House to enact a five-year farm bill extension, which is facing resistance from some conservatives in the lower chamber (E&E Daily, July 26).

More than 1,200 counties in 26 states have been declared disaster areas because of the drought, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Reporter Amanda Peterka contributed.