In voting on dueling amendments, Senate continues food aid to North Korea

The Senate voted to continue food aid to North Korea, shooting down an amendment ending that aid and also approving a different one in support of it.

First, the Senate voted on an amendment by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) that was essentially a counter to an amendment by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) to cut off U.S. food aid to North Korea. The Kerry-Lugar amendment was approved in a vote of 59 to 40, and Kyl's amendment failed 43 to 56.

An amendment by Sen. Tom Udall (D-Colo.), which increased funding to fight insect and disease epidemics in forests, was approved in a decisive vote of 77 to 22. An amendment by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) repealing the forest legacy program failed in a vote of 21 to 77.

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