UPDATE 1-Veto awaits Senate fix-up of US farm law

(Senate passes bill, veto is vowed; new throughout)

By Charles Abbott

WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - The Senate on Thursday passed a new text of the 2008 farm law, including a 35-page section on trade and food aid programs that had been left out of the original bill.

The White House said President George W. Bush would veto the new bill as he vetoed the previous bill, which contained most of the five-year, $289 billion law that was enacted on May 22 by congressional override of a his earlier veto.

Congressional staff workers said a new veto also would be overridden.

Senators passed the bill, 77-15. The House passed it, 306-110, last month.

"We have voted on this twice before," said Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat and Agriculture Committee chairman, foreseeing easy passage. The Republican leader on the committee, Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, noted the veto vow and said, "We may be back here again."

The 35-page trade section was accidentally omitted from the original text of the bill Bush vetoed. Agriculture Committee leaders say enactment of the new bill would extinguish any grounds to challenge the farm law.

The trade section reauthorizes four food aid programs and repeals the Export Enhancement Program, once the leading U.S. export subsidy program but idle in recent years. It revamps three export credit programs in response to World Trade Organization rulings against cotton subsidies.

Bush faulted Congress last month for not adopting his proposal to buy food aid near where it is needed, rather than rely on shipments of U.S.-grown food. Bush said local purchase would save lives by delivering aid more quickly.

Congress decided on a $60 million pilot program to test the idea. The administration had proposed using up to a quarter of funding for the major food aid program.

"Once they enroll the bill and check to make sure it is complete this time, the President will veto it," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel.

Bush has vetoed 10 bills while president and been overridden twice. The first was on a water-project bill last November.

With election season at hand, a majority of Republicans in the House and Senate voted last month to override the veto of the farm bill rather than stand with an unpopular president. (Reporting by Charles Abbott; Editing by David Gregorio)