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WASHINGTON – Congress this year will deal with a host of profound issues: A confrontation over raising the nation’s debt limit. Budget battles that will determine whether more cuts are made in government services. And the most ambitious attempt to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws in nearly three decades.

But first: the Great Egg Debate.

A fight has broken out over how egg-laying hens should be treated – and specifically whether California can be blocked from requiring that eggs imported into the state be produced under voter-approved standards ensuring that the chickens can spread their wings.

This being Congress, the measure pushed by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is not just about eggs. It has morphed into a dispute over the rights of the states versus those of the federal government, with a host of laws governing food and even animal welfare potentially in the balance.

It also carries the none-too-rare whiff of disdain for California, which is seen – again – as trying to throw elbows at the other 49 states. Chief among the supposed targets, of course, is Iowa, the top egg-producing state in the nation – the bulk of it from King’s district, courtesy of its 42 million egg-laying hens.

King persuaded House Agriculture Committee colleagues to include in the proposed farm bill a prohibition on states imposing conditions on another state’s production of agricultural goods. The bill is expected to come before the House this month.

King is taking aim at California’s Proposition 2, a much-debated 2008 initiative that requires California farmers to give egg-laying birds enough room to stand and spread their wings. Although the measure does not specify cage size, industry officials believe it will require that hens be given about twice as much room and perhaps more than the current standard of 67 square inches per bird, about as much space as a sheet of letter paper, while the Humane Society of the United States contends it will effectively lead to cage-free production.

Two years after it passed, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation and added a requirement that, when the initiative takes effect in 2015, all eggs sold in the state come from farms that meet the California standards.

King and his allies contend that California is essentially setting a national standard for treatment of hens and stepping into Congress’ authority to regulate interstate commerce.

“The people of California have an absolute right to tell their producers in California how they’re going to raise agricultural products,” Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va.) said at a recent Agriculture Committee meeting. “But that does not mean that they can … without challenge by the Congress, say that no other product from any state can come in unless it complies with those regulations.”

During the meeting, Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno), a former state lawmaker, appealed to colleagues, many of whom also served in statehouses: “Remember when we didn’t like the Congress passing laws that superseded our ability to do what we thought was best for our folks within our states?”

Financially speaking, the stakes are huge. California is a lucrative egg market, with its residents consuming more than 9 billion eggs directly or in foods made with eggs last year, only 55% of which were produced in the state.