Senate Joins House In Approving Veto-Proof Farm Bill

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The Senate joined the House on Thursday and passed a $289 billion farm bill that President George Bush has repeatedly threatened to veto. The bill was approved by more than a majority vote and will likely override any such move by the President.

Senators voted 81-15 to pass the legislation that the White House says gives to much subsidies to farmers. The House approved the bill by a 318-106 vote the previous day.

The bill provides subsidies to farmers with an income of up to $750,000 and nonfarm income of $500,000. It includes earmarks, such as $400 million to rehabilitate Chesapeake Bay and $170 million to help salmon fishermen in the Pacific Coast, but devotes most of its funds, about 74%, to food aid.

The White House has said the measure is too costly and that an extension of the current law would be better. Spokesman Scott Stanzel said in a statement to the New York Sun that the President would still reject the bill despite the overwhelming support from lawmakers. "This bloated bill includes special-interest earmarks and uses budget gimmicks to hide massive new spending. The president will veto it," he said.

Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer also said, "The farm bill passed today is a farm bill in name only. It increases the size and cost of government while jeopardizing the future of legitimate farm programs," according to U.S. News and World Report. But Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said the bill protects farmers from rising food prices. "For too many years we have asked our farmers and ranchers to do more and more, and always with less," he is quoted by MarketWatch as saying. "While the urban media create visions of agriculture producers lining up for government payments, I am more worried about our next generation of producers lining up to leave those family farms and ranches."