The Senate voted 82-13 to override President Bush's veto of the Farm Bill, which includes nearly $2 billion in tax relief.
The House already voted to override the veto. The vote came despite the omission of a 34-page section of the 673-page bill from the version that arrived at the president's desk last Wednesday. The Senate may need to vote separately on that portion of the bill, which includes provisions related to trade programs and foreign food aid.
"By voting to override the president's veto, we did what's right for farm families in Montana and across the country today," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., in a statement.
The bill includes provisions related to agricultural subsidies, food stamps, disaster assistance, land conservation and other matters.
Tax reforms include an ethanol credit modification that reduces the 51 cents per gallon credit by 6 cents in the year after which the 7.5 billion-gallon threshold is reached. The bill also limits the amount of farming losses a taxpayer may use to reduce other non-farming business income to the greater of $300,000 or the net farm income for the previous five years if the taxpayer receives farm bill commodity payments. The bill allows farmers to pay additional self-employment taxes to qualify for Social Security.
