FACTBOX-U.S. food-aid programs under spotlight

May 9 (Reuters) - House and Senate lawmakers announced a final compromise on Thursday on the 2008 farm bill, the wide-ranging, $300 billion agriculture bill.

The compromise bill, which must be voted on by both chambers, already faces a veto threat from the White House.

Below are some of the details of the bill's provisions on U.S. food aid programs.

* A $60 million pilot program would allow U.S. food aid programs to purchase food in the developing world rather than requiring U.S. crops be used.

For years, the Bush administration has been pushing a proposal to allow such purchases abroad for up to a quarter of the largest food-aid program in a bid to save time and money. Lawmakers again rejected the idea, but did adopt a program to test such purchases, switching course in providing the pilot program guaranteed funding through Agriculture Department.

* The bill provides $84 million in mandatory funds for feeding schoolchildren overseas.

The funding level disappointed advocates of the McGovern-Dole program, which provides meals to school children in places like Afghanistan. The program has not received mandatory funds since 2003, but supporters had been hoping the final bill would adopt the House's decision to provide it a mandatory $840 million over five years.

On Thursday, lawmakers said the program would be funded through the annual budget process.

* The bill sets aside food aid funds for development projects in poor countries.

The House and Senate originally planned to wall off up to half of the budget for the biggest food-aid program, run by the U.S. Agency for International Development, for such long-term programs, which aim to foster better health, nutrition and agriculture in countries prone to hunger.

After push-back from the administration -- which warned such a move could cut off millions of people from food aid when emergencies strike -- lawmakers provided the administration a waiver that would allow it to use those funds under certain conditions.

The development set-aside would increase over five years to an annual $450 million for those programs.

* The bill would also permit a greater share of food aid funding to be used for administrative costs, a priority for aid groups. It also seeks to encourage the use of an emergency crop trust and expands funding for prepositioning of food aid overseas. (Compiled by Missy Ryan)