Senate Passes Agriculture Bill

The Associated Press
Oct. 25, 2001

WASHINGTON –– The Senate voted 91-5 Thursday to pass a $73.9 billion spending bill that is slightly less than President Bush requested for agriculture, nutrition programs and the Food and Drug Administration.

Roughly half the bill's total for fiscal year 2002, about $35.8 billion, goes for feeding programs such as food stamps and child nutrition. The overall level is $78 million below the president's request but is $870 million above the 2001 spending level, not counting a $3.6 billion emergency farm package.

The legislation provides $108 million more than last year for conservation programs in the Agriculture Department, $800 million more for farm credit and $20.5 million more for food safety.

By a 50-45 vote, the Senate effectively turned back an amendment by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, that would have given the Agriculture Department greater ability to set and enforce rules requiring meat processing plants to reduce contamination pathogens such as salmonella. An identical amendment failed by one vote last year.

The legislation now goes into a conference committee to work out differences with the House, which passed its $74.3 billion version on July 11. The House bill includes several contentious issues not addressed by the Senate, including a "drug reimportation" amendment that would allow people to buy U.S.-made prescription drugs from abroad by mail and other means.

With Congress having completed just two of the 13 annual spending bills for the new fiscal year, both the House and Senate voted without dissent Thursday to let federal agencies continue functioning through Nov. 16. The temporary spending measure is the fourth one since fiscal 2002 began Oct. 1.