The money, approved as part of a massive corporate tax reduction bill, would be paid by cigarette makers over 10 years to farmers and others who hold Depression-era production allotments.

The measure, approved 69-17, now goes to the White House for President Bush to sign into law. The House passed the legislation on Thursday.

Farmers have been pressing Congress for the buyout for years. Once it becomes law, growers wouldn't receive price supports and could sell the leaf at market rates. They can also get out of the business or grow something else. As demand falls for cigarettes and other products, tobacco growers are struggling even more by having to charge an artificially high price for domestic leaf, supporters say.

Quota holders would receive $7 per pound and growers would get $3 per pound.

Tobacco-state lawmakers hailed the move to buy the allotments as crucial to their economies. Environmental groups were happy taxpayers don't have to pay, but were unhappy that lawmakers rejected increasing federal control over tobacco. The industry was split over whether the buyout is fair.

The Environmental Working Group said 437,000 people are eligible for the buyout based on Agricultural Department data. About 367,000 allotment holders in Kentucky, the Carolinas, Tennessee and Virginia would receive most of the money - $6 billion would go to Kentucky and North Carolina alone.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a key negotiator on the buyout provision, said the number of tobacco farms in his state dropped from 46,850 in 1997 to 29,237 in 2002 because of falling demand and quota cuts.

"Tobacco growers and quota holders knew they were facing an economic disaster without the passage of a tobacco buyout," he said.

Ken Cook, Environmental Working Group president, said Congress made it harder to protect people from smoking-related dangers by stripping language giving the Food and Drug Administration more regulatory power. However, he praised lawmakers for making the industry pay.

"This is far better than having taxpayers pay. That was completely unfair," he said.

The biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, called the plan reasonable. Spokeswoman Jamie Drogin said the company sought more FDA regulation because that would have created a uniform tobacco policy nationwide.