Senate approves farm bill again

The Senate voted 77-15 late Thursday for the farm bill, hoping to finish the fiasco that had stymied Congress and is likely to lead to the second override of a President Bush veto.

Senators said they assumed a second veto and another override was likely, but added that they hoped Bush would bend to political reality and simply sign the bill.

{mosads}“It’s the same bill he vetoed before, and we overrode him with more than 80 votes,” said Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), ranking Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee. “My guess is that he probably does veto it and we’ll override it again, but I would hope that he would say, ‘Hey, I’ve lost this battle,’ and go ahead and sign it so we don’t have to have another vote.”

Chambliss, who had a direct line to the White House during the bill’s negotiations, said he has not talked to Bush recently but plans to do so soon.

Last month, the House passed the bill in a 318-106 vote and the Senate approved it by an 81-15 total, but House leaders accidentally left a section on trade policy out of the bill when it was sent to the White House. Bush vetoed the bill and the Senate and House overrode the vetoes amid some doubts over whether the missing section was law.

Rather than focus on the missing section, the House last month passed the whole bill again. The Senate did the same Thursday, passing the entire text, including the section on trade policy. Sources said the Senate and House took that route because it might not have been possible to approve the missing section, which was on trade policy, by itself.

Senate leaders had intended on a simple voice vote, but Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) objected and forced a roll call vote.