Senate ignores Bush veto threat, approves farm bill

Washington- Ignoring President Bush's veto threat, the Senate voted by a wide margin Thursday to boost food stamps and farm subsidies, while allowing some high-income farmers to still get government aid.

The measure, passed by the House on Wednesday, will provide more money for people who need help paying for groceries, said Sen. Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who helped shepherd the massive farm bill during nearly 18 months of debate and negotiation.

It will assure that more fresh fruits and vegetables are served in low-income school lunch programs and in meal programs for the elderly, Brown said. It also will provide $50 million in immediate emergency funding for the nation's food banks and double federal money for food banks over the next five years, said Brown, the first Ohioan on the Senate Agriculture Committee in four decades.

Money for nutrition makes up about three-quarters of the $289 billion, five-year farm bill, which also promotes land conservation. It reduces the income cap for people who can qualify for farm subsidies, from the current $2.5 million in adjusted annual gross income to $750,000 in farm-related income, which includes income from biofuel investments.

Most Republicans, worried about steep losses in the fall elections, abandoned Bush on the measure, with 35 of the Senate's 49 Republicans voting with Democrats to pass and send the bill to the White House. One hundred Republicans in the House had voted the same way Wednesday.

Those wide margins could put Bush's veto threat to the test when he gets the bill, possibly next week. Supporters of the bill say they're certain they could override a veto.

Sen. George Voinovich, Republican of Ohio, was among the minority who voted no. He said he supported the farm and nutrition components, but not the billions in new spending.

"It was the fiscal irresponsibility of the bill that he just could not vote for," said Voinovich spokesman Chris Paulitz.

Brown acknowledged that the bill had flaws, saying he agreed with Bush that it still allowed too many high-income farmers to qualify for agriculture supports.

"This bill is far from perfect, and that's one of the most imperfect parts of it," he said.

But about two-thirds of the bill would pay for domestic nutrition programs such as food stamps and emergency food aid for the needy. An additional $40 billion is for farm subsidies, while almost $30 billion would go to farmers to idle their land and to other environmental programs.

Rising food costs put political pressure on lawmakers to boost money for food stamps and other nutrition programs. The bill's fate appeared bleak until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, intervened and forced farm-state negotiators to divert money from farm subsidies to food programs.

That brought the support of not only urban Democrats but also Republicans from all areas of the country, many of whom are growing more nervous about their re-election prospects in November.