The Senate passed the $290 billion, five-year farm bill by a strong veto-proof margin Thursday, ensuring that the measure becomes law despite President Bush's threatened veto, which would be the first presidential veto of a farm bill since Dwight Eisenhower's in 1956. The 81-15 Senate vote followed overwhelming bipartisan passage of the bill in the House Wednesday. The measure continues $25 billion in direct payments, mainly to grain growers despite record prices; contains $3 billion in first-ever research and marketing money for California produce growers; and creates a new "permanent disaster" program that will subsidize wheat growers who plant marginal prairie land now set aside for wildlife and watershed protection. California Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein both voted for the bill after joining an effort last year to radically overhaul the 1933-era subsidy system. When that effort failed, Boxer battled back-door efforts to attach pesticide and wetlands provisions she said would have set back the move toward safer farm production methods and weakened farmer participation in wetlands conservation programs. She went so far as to block the bill the last few weeks until those provisions were removed. Boxer strongly supported a $170 million earmark to bail out Pacific Coast salmon fishermen, sponsored by Representative Mike Thompson. Thompson said the salmon fishermen have beenSacramento River fish. Feinstein said she does not support the $2.5 million annual income limit the bill sets for cutting off crop subsidies to farm couples but that the bill was supported by all agriculture groups in California. severely harmed by the closure of the fishing season in an effort to aid