Ending a six-week impasse, the Senate yesterday approved a $286 billion farm bill that would authorize significant new spending for farm programs, food stamps and conservation but would make only modest changes in the nation's traditional agricultural subsidy system.
The 79 to 14 vote came after Southern lawmakers used a procedural maneuver to prevent the approval of tighter limits on subsidy payments to large commercial growers of rice and cotton. The savings from the change would have gone to anti-hunger programs, the protection of fragile grasslands and the settlement of lawsuits filed by black farmers alleging discrimination in government farm programs.
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