WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Senate approved a $289 billion farm bill Thursday that provides significant new funding for fruit and vegetable growers in Washington state and elsewhere.

The Senate passed the measure 81-15, more than enough votes to override a promised presidential veto. The bill passed the House by a veto-proof margin on Wednesday.

Congressional aides said the legislation provides $1.3 billion for specialty crop growers, the first time such a section had been included in a farm bill. The money will be used to expand state grants, boost funding for research, expand pest and disease management programs and for trade promotion assistance to help open foreign markets to fruits and vegetables grown in the United States.

The bill also includes $1 billion for schools to buy fruits and vegetables in an effort to improve childhood nutrition and $3.8 billion for a disaster relief trust fund, which farmers, including specialty crop growers, can tap when they lose their crops because of natural disasters.

“Passage of this farm bill is a huge win for farmers and specialty crop growers in Washington state,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell. D-Wash.

Among other things, Cantwell said, the bill reworks a program to allow more orchardists to apply for aid to replace bushes, vines and trees damaged in a natural disaster.

The measure also doubles current funding to $118 million for biomass and bioenergy research programs with an emphasis on cellulosic feedstocks, Cantwell said.

Washington state’s other senator, Democrat Patty Murray, singled out provisions providing $15 million for asparagus growers who have been hurt by cheap imports and $20 million for the new National Clean Plant Network to provide safe, virus-free plant materials.

“This isn’t a perfect bill,” Murray said on the Senate floor. “But it is a very good bill for my home state of Washington.”

Agriculture groups, who had been working on the bill for three or four years, were pleased.

“It looks like we have a farm bill,” said Chris Schlect, who heads the Northwest Horticultural Council, which represents the region’s fruit growers. “You can pick these bills apart, but there are a lot of good things in there for specialty crops.”

The House approved the bill 318-106, with four Washington state lawmakers — Democrats Adam Smith, Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott along with Republican Dave Reichert — voting against the measure. U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, voted for the measure.

“The fact is that our agriculture policy contains wasteful, market-distorting subsidies that insult taxpayers and hamper our nation’s economic growth prospects by undermining our trade policies,” Smith said in a statement.

Reichert said the bill was just more “business as usual,” adding that the “outdated” system of subsidies needed to be replaced with a “modern, entrepreneurial system.”

Rep. Doc Hastings, RWash., who supported the measure, agreed with Murray that even though the bill was “far from perfect,” it provides “more support for central Washington specialty crops than any other farm bill in history.”

Les Blumenthal covers issues about Washington state from the McClatchy Washington, D.C., bureau. He can be reached at lblumenthal@mcclatchydc.com.