P.M. BRIEFING : Senate Unit OKs Rural Aid Program

WASHINGTON —  The Senate Agriculture Committee unanimously passed a rural development program today after Senate leaders agreed to tackle drought relief next month.

The insistence Tuesday by Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas that the Senate pass drought relief for winter wheat farmers in his state and elsewhere, before rural development, had threatened to cripple both pieces of legislation, Democratic committee members said today.

However, committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and the panel’s ranking Republican, Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, announced that they had agreed to move forward with the rural development bill and act on drought relief July 19.