Snowe, Collins divide on Senate farm bill votes

WASHINGTON – Congress enacted a massive farm bill Thursday with new and bigger subsidies for farmers, plus more food stamps for the poor.

But first Democrats had to eat a little crow that dimmed the election-year victory of overriding President Bush’s veto for only the second time during his seven years in office.

Omitted from the $290 billion, five-year law because of a printing mistake was a small amount of money to address a growing global hunger crisis. Democrats only realized the mistake on Wednesday, just before the House voted 316-108 to override Bush’s veto.

The Senate joined the override Thursday with a 82-13 vote.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, voted in favor of overriding the veto.

She cited language in the bill that would:

. Combat illegal logging by banning the import of goods made with illegally harvested foreign timber.

. Allow funding for specialty crop farming.

. Dedicate federal resources toward the Northern Border Commission and regional economic development.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted against overriding the veto, saying the farm bill represents “a massive waste of taxpayer dollars.”

While insisting in a news release that she supports some programs in the bill, Collins said the legislation would “provide very little assistance to Maine farmers.”

President Bush claimed the legislation is too expensive and too generous with subsidies for farmers who are enjoying record high prices and incomes. He had opposed the legislation from the start, threatening his first veto last July.

A bipartisan group of negotiators on the bill made small cuts to subsidies to appease the White House, but Bush said it wasn’t enough.

Still, congressional Republicans overwhelmingly abandoned Bush in voting to override the legislation, overlooking its cost amid public concern about the weak economy and high gasoline and grocery prices. GOP lawmakers are anxious about their own prospects less than six months before Election Day.

About two-thirds of the law would pay for nutrition programs such as food stamps, which would see increases of around $1 billion a year. About $40 billion is for farm subsidies and almost $30 billion would go to farmers to idle their land and for other environmental programs.

The farm bill also would:

. Increase subsidies for some crops and for the first time subsidize growers of fresh fruits and vegetables.

. Extend and expand dairy programs.

. Increase loan rates for sugar producers.

. Expand a program to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to schoolchildren.

. Cut a per-gallon ethanol tax credit for refiners from 51 cents to 45 cents. The credit supports the blending of fuel with the corn-based additive. More money would go to cellulosic ethanol, made from plant matter.