| WASHINGTON (October 25, 2001 9:04 p.m. EDT) - The Senate voted 91-5
Thursday to pass a $73.9 billion spending bill that budgets slightly less
than what 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.
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