From Russell W. Riggs, RLI's Legislative Liaison in Washington

The House and Senate last week voted to overturn the president's veto of the farm bill, making all but one of the bill's titles law and bucking the White House with emphatic support for the $286 billion measure. The strong vote of support came despite complaints from some Republicans that the action could violate the Constitution and invite legal challenges against the bill, since one section was missing in the paperwork.

"I want to make sure there's no doubt in anyone's mind," Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said on the floor at the conclusion of the vote. "Fourteen of the 15 titles in this farm bill are now law."

Last week, lawmakers discovered a clerical error in the version of the bill they sent President Bush. The parchment-printed copy Bush vetoed contained 14 of the 15 titles of the farm bill. The 34 pages of the trade title -- which includes international food aid and a certification program for softwood lumber -- were missing. Due to the error, the vote is not quite the end of lawmakers' work on the farm bill. Lawmakers will either have to take up the trade title on its own or vote again on the entire farm bill when they return from the Memorial Day recess.

"We're not sure where we'll be when we get back; there is a chance we will have to take up the bill again," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). "But we hope over the next few days we can smooth this over."

As committee aides and lawyers scrambled to understand how best to deal with the missing title, Democrats tried to hedge their bets for passage of the farm bill. Lawmakers have been working to reauthorize the massive measure for the past two years. With the most recent extension of farm programs expiring last week, senators moved to override the veto for as much of the farm bill as they could. Meanwhile, the House voted to pass all 15 titles of the farm bill.

The Senate could take up that bill and go through the veto and override process again, or the two chambers can try to pass the trade title separately.

Despite the dispute over the missing title, both the House and Senate votes were well above the two-thirds margin needed to overturn a veto. It is the second time lawmakers have been able to outweigh Bush in the past eight years. The only other override came for the Water Resources Development Act last year.

Like WRDA, which oversees funding for various water projects, the farm bill had a variety of programs for lawmakers to support. The $286 billion five-year farm bill would ramp up funding for some conservation programs and food stamps and extend most crop support programs.

Democratic lawmakers said the decision to move forward on the veto-override came after extensive consultation with parliamentarians. They decided they could enact the abbreviated bill and pass the missing trade title later. House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) cited an 1892 court case that he said formed a legal precedent for the move.

"It is totally constitutional to do what we're planning to do, so no one should be concerned about that," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said before the Senate vote.