Congress OKs $5.7 Billion for Midwest Flood Losses : Disaster: Both houses approve funds to assist farmers, busineses owners and for FEMA programs. Additional money may be needed later.

Congress on Friday approved legislation that will provide $5.7 billion in emergency aid for the flood-stricken Midwest.

In one of its final acts before adjourning for a monthlong summer recess, the Senate approved by voice vote a new and expanded version of the flood relief bill accepted only hours earlier by the House. The bill now goes to President Clinton for his signature.

While warning that rising damage estimates may require still more aid, lawmakers approved a measure that will give farmers a total of $2.3 billion in compensation for crop losses and provide loans of up to $1.5 million to help small businesses rebuild.

Two billion dollars was allocated to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to aid homeless families and other victims, while other provisions provide funds for repairing broken levees and damaged homes, highways and rail links.

A crop-loss provision added by the Senate also will enable farmers to recover damages at the rate of 42 cents on the dollar--twice the 21-cent limit in recent disaster spending bills.

Sharp partisan debates over how to pay for the relief delayed approval of the bill when it was first introduced as a $2.5-billion emergency measure July 14.

But despite the fact that the House and the Senate spent most of the past month arguing over President Clinton’s deficit-reduction package, the measure swelled to $5.7 billion before it was approved.

The House initially allocated $3 billion in flood relief, but the Senate added another $2.7 billion, both to cover additional damages from the floods and to help farmers suffering from crop losses caused by the drought in the Southeast earlier this year.

A few lawmakers noted the irony of voting for legislation that will increase the deficit just after the two chambers conducted momentous votes to reduce it by approving Clinton’s deficit-reduction package.

But in the end there was no significant opposition to what both fiscal conservatives and liberals agreed was a domestic natural disaster of unprecedented proportions.

“We’ve scattered money all over the world . . . and these are our people and they’re suffering,” said Rep. William H. Natcher (D-Ky.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.