WASHINGTON —  The farm bill that just sailed through Congress includes provisions aimed at helping sugar growers, which is of special interest to Minnesota, the nation's largest producer of sugar beets.

The legislation calls for a gradual 5.2 percent increase in the loan rate for sugar beet growers, or guaranteed minimum price, through 2011, and a 4.2 percent increase for cane. That would be the first increase since 1985.

It also uses the ethanol industry as a hedge against the effects of more imported sugar. The bill calls on the government to buy surplus domestic sugar and sell it to ethanol producers _ for use in a mixture with corn _ in the event of a glut of imported sugar.

The Red River Valley of eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota is prime sugar beet country.

President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, and the Bush administration has cited the sugar-to-ethanol provision as one of several elements to which it objected. But the Senate passed the farm bill last week by a veto-proof margin a day after the House did the same.

The vote in the Senate was 81-15, with both Minnesota senators, Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Amy Klobuchar, and both North Dakota senators, Democrats Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, voting yes.

Coleman, who has long championed the sugar-to-ethanol idea, called the farm bill a "tremendous victory for Minnesota."

He said sugar ethanol can help reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil and help protect against imported Mexican sugar. A North American Free Trade Agreement provision which took effect this year allows Mexico to export unlimited amounts of sugar to the U.S.

"I take great pride in the sugar ethanol program that is in this bill," Coleman said. "This proposal was once met with indignation when I first offered it a few years ago."

The sugar-to-ethanol proposal has its critics. New Hampshire Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu, both Republicans, were among 15 senators to vote against the $290 billion farm bill.

The legislation would make small cuts to direct payments that are distributed to some farmers no matter how much they grow, and would eliminate some federal payments to individuals with more than $750,000 in annual farm income.

But Sununu said overall it would leave massive subsides in place even as food prices soar.

"At a time when farms are experiencing record profit, there is absolutely no reason to provide price supports for sugar and extend the ethanol tariff," he said. "The bill is a continuation of bad economic policy that taxpayers in New Hampshire and across the country do not deserve."

Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, and John McCain, a Republican, jumped into the farm bill debate. McCain, an opponent of the bill, said that he would veto it if he were president, saying it rewards wealthy people.

Clinton, who is running against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama in June 3 Democratic primaries in South Dakota and Montana, said rural America is already struggling due to skyrocketing energy prices, an economic downturn and rising food prices.

"Saying no to the farm bill would be saying no to rural America," she said. Clinton and Obama both voted for the bill.

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On the Net:

Information on the bill, H.R. 2419, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov

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