The Bush administration warned the president would veto the Senate bill approved Friday and a House version passed in July, The Washington Post reported Saturday. The two houses still must agree on a compromise version.

Friday's 79 to 14 vote came after Southern senators blocked tighter limits on subsidy payments to large growers of rice and cotton.

The savings from the change would have benefited anti-hunger programs, the protection of vulnerable grasslands and the settlement of lawsuits filed by black farmers alleging discrimination in farm programs, the Post reported.

"The Democratic leadership of this Congress has come down at almost every turn in favor of subsidized big agriculture," said Ken Cook, president of the Washington-based Environmental Working Group. "They've shown a spectacular deference to a small group of wealthy special interests."