WASHINGTON - The farm bill passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee Thursday includes increased payments for both sugar growers and dairy farmers, and won the support of both Minnesota senators.

Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar won inclusion of several of their provisions in the bill - but both also said they would seek further changes in the legislation.

The bill calls for a 1 cent increase in the guaranteed government minimum price for sugar growers, or loan rate. Minnesota is the leading producer of sugar beets in the nation.

It also includes a renewal of the Milk Income Loss Contract program at higher rates. The program, known as MILC, pays dairy farmers cash when milk prices fall below certain levels.

Currently, when prices fall below a baseline level, the federal government pays dairy farmers cash to cover 34 percent of the difference. Under the renewal, the rate would increase to 45 percent, restoring it to a level it was at a couple of years ago.

The bill also increases the amount of an individual farmer's dairy production that is eligible for the program.

Both Coleman, a Republican, and Klobuchar, a Democrat, voted against an amendment by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., to cut $1.7 billion from direct payments and shift the money to nutrition programs, including food stamps and emergency food assistance. The committee voted down the amendment.

"I share the sentiments of Sen. Lugar that we should be shifting some of this payment money, and I would just do it a different way," said Klobuchar. She said that rather than an across-the-board cut, Congress should target millionaire real estate developers and others who she said are undeserving of the subsidies.

Klobuchar said one flaw in the bill is that it does not include sufficient payment limits.

Coleman said the amendment by Lugar, a former committee chairman, would have "toppled the whole farm bill."

"And so in the end, the folks who are producing the food for those who need the food would find themselves unable to produce the food," he said. "We'd have more people on food stamps - and they'd be called family farmers."

Coleman said most senators agreed more money should be spent on emergency food assistance, and he proposed an amendment that would have increased funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program. He withdrew the amendment after getting assurances that money would be sought for the increase before the bill comes up for a vote in the Senate.

Coleman's office said his Rural Renaissance legislation was passed by the Finance Committee, and that it will be included in the farm bill when it comes to the floor for a vote. The legislation authorizes $400 million to help finance rural infrastructure projects. He also won inclusion of $50 million for loans and loan guarantees for hospitals with no more than 100 acute beds in rural areas.