The five-year, $300-billion farm bill now before Congress is being roundly criticized for diverting millions of dollars from international food aid to pay more subsidies to U.S. farmers.

Raymond Offenheiser, the president of the international aid group Oxfam America, says "the pigs at the trough" are promoting handouts from taxpayers at a time when, in his words, "agriculture markets are so strong and our economy so weak."

The bill includes less than one percent of its total cost for food relief abroad. At the same time, it keeps in place billions of dollars in subsidies to U.S. farmers that critics say hurt poor countries trying to produce their own food.

President Bush has promised a veto even though the bill has widespread bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.