The Senate yesterday passed a $124.3 billion agriculture spending bill that pays to add millions of people to the food stamp rolls as rising numbers of the jobless are forced into the program.

Money for the federal school lunch program is going up 12 percent as well, while a popular program that gives additional food aid for poor children and pregnant women received a 9 percent increase in funding.

The bill passed by a 80-17 vote.

As the nation's unemployment rate nears 10 percent, a record 34.4 million people - or one in nine Americans - were participating in the food stamp program as of May. That's an increase of 650,000 people from the previous month and up 6 million from the same time last year.

More than two-thirds of the measure, $86 billion, goes for domestic food programs, including $61 billion for food stamps. The legislation provides the money for the program, though the cost is set by how many eligible families participate.

The average monthly food stamp benefit for a family was $295 in April.

The bill is the fourth of the 12 annual spending bills for agencies whose budgets are set by Congress each year. There's little hope Congress will meet the Oct. 1 deadline to complete the bills by the start of the 2010 budget year, although Senate leaders are hoping to avoid yet another "omnibus" appropriations bill that wraps all the remaining spending measures into one giant piece of legislation.

The House passed companion agriculture spending legislation last month. Yesterday's action by the Senate sends the measure into talks between the two chambers to resolve differences.

In a surprising development, the Senate voted to add $350 million to the measure to lift milk price supports - the amount the government pays for surplus milk products - by an estimated $1.50 per hundredweight, which should inch milk prices higher.

The amendment, by Independent Bernie Sanders from Vermont, barely prevailed on a 60-37 vote. Sixty votes were required because the amendment broke budget rules.

Sanders said dairy farmers, especially smaller ones, are struggling badly as milk prices have plummeted by more than 40 percent below last year, well below most farmers' production costs.

"Family-based dairy agriculture is on the verge of collapse," Sanders said. "This is not a regional issue. This is a national issue."

The bill also would repeal a controversial ban on poultry products from China, as long as the Agriculture Department agrees to step up inspections of those imports.

China and the United States banned imports of each others' poultry in 2004 following an outbreak of bird flu, though China lifted its ban after a few months. The Chinese now complain that the U.S. has failed to follow through on a pledge to reopen its market.

Last month, the World Trade Organization began a formal investigation of the U.S. ban after China alleged that the U.S. was fundamentally breaking global commerce rules. The United States countered that it still was examining whether Chinese poultry was safe for human consumption.

Single page