The Senate today passed its farm bill by a 64-35 bipartisan vote, paving the way for the House to take action later this summer.

The final vote on the sweeping legislation came after a two-and-a-half-day marathon in which senators voted on more than 70 amendments.

"It's an important day for the Senate, coming together on 73 votes, working together in a bipartisan basis," said Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). "We now turn to our House colleagues."

The legislation would spend $969 billion over the next decade but still cut $23.6 billion from farm programs and eliminate more than 100 program authorizations. It would cut about $6.5 billion from conservation programs, consolidating them from 23 to 13, and shift farm subsidies from a direct payment system to one that is more insurance-focused.

The bill also would provide about $800 million in mandatory funding to rural energy programs working to increase energy efficiency and build up the nation's domestic advanced biofuels industry.

The House Agriculture Committee will mark up its version of the bill beginning July 11 after the full House votes next week on the fiscal 2013 agriculture appropriations bill.

There will likely be both funding and policy differences between the House and Senate bills. House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) has signaled that his version will include $33 billion in cuts and change a new revenue insurance program contained in the Senate bill.

"Although there will be differences between the Senate approach and our own, I hope my colleagues are encouraged by this success when we meet on the 11th to consider our own legislation," Lucas said in a statement after the Senate vote.

The House Agriculture Committee is working to bring its bill to the floor before the August recess. Agriculture ranking member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) earlier today disputed reports that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was stalling the legislation.

"It is crucial that we finish the farm bill before the current bill expires in September," he said in a statement. "Waiting until the mess that will occur during the lame duck session will not only make it more difficult, but could also result in several unintended consequences."

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today also urged swift action on the bill and called for more savings to farmer subsidy programs.

"I'm very pleased that the Senate acted in bipartisan spirit today," Vilsack said in a statement. "As the legislative process moves forward, the Administration will continue to seek policy solutions and savings consistent with the president's budget, and we are hopeful that the House of Representatives will produce a bill with those same goals in mind."

As expected, Southern senators voted against the farm bill for changes that they say benefit corn and soybeans to the detriment of peanuts and rice. They are waiting until a conference committee to work out their concerns with the bill, Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) said yesterday.

In all, 30 Republicans and five Democrats voted against the Senate bill. The Democrats were Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Jack Reed (R.I.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.).

Senators today finished up a final 10 amendments, striking down two competing ones addressing U.S. EPA's practice of using manned airplanes to inspect concentrated animal feeding operations.

The flyovers came into the public fore a few weeks ago when Nebraska's congressional delegation sent a letter to EPA demanding answers on the practice, which it said posed serious privacy concerns (Greenwire, June 8).

After receiving what he called an inadequate response from EPA, Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns (R) filed an amendment to the farm bill that would ban the practice. In response, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) filed one that would allow EPA to continue the practice if it provides notice to state authorities ahead of flights.

Both amendments required 60 votes to pass. The Johanns amendment failed by a vote of 56-43, while the Boxer amendment failed 47-48.

The Senate also struck down an amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have granted states the authority to require the labeling of food products containing genetically modified ingredients.

About 40 consumer groups, many of which have recently petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to require labeling, supported the amendment.

Among the 26 senators who voted for the Sanders amendment, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the only Republican.

The Senate passed, by voice vote, an amendment from Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) that would call on the White House budget office to produce a detailed rundown of how January's scheduled first round of automatic budget cuts would affect all domestic agencies, including EPA, the Energy Department and the Interior Department.

Murray's amendment cleared after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) agreed to withdraw a competing measure that would have provided the same analysis for only the Pentagon. Environmental groups have quietly hailed the proposal as a first nudge for lawmakers toward a bipartisan accord on averting the $1.2 trillion "sequester" before it takes effect in 2013 (E&E Daily, June 21).

Over the past two days, senators also agreed to amendments that would add conservation requirements to crop insurance premium subsidies, halt conservation subsidies from going to millionaires, double the funding for bark beetle eradication and create a new grant program for biomass heating.

Reporter Elana Schor contributed.