Senators were heading home for Thanksgiving Friday without any progress to report on a five-year farm bill that is important to many of their constituents.

An effort by Democratic leaders to limit debate on the Senate version of the measure fell five votes short of the 60 needed.

The vote was a last ditch effort by Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin , D-Iowa, and Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nev., to block non-germane amendments to the sweeping farm policy bill.

Harkin charged that Republican leaders were trying to kill the bill in Congress so that President Bush is not put in the awkward position of vetoing a measure crucial to traditionally conservative rural America in the runup to the 2008 elections. The White House has lodged a veto threat against both the House-passed version of the farm bill and its Senate counterpart.

“I think some of their political people have told them, ‘you can’t veto a farm bill.’ So what the White House has done is say ‘kill the bill here, kill it.’ . . . I see the heavy hand of the White House behind what’s going on,” Harkin said.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky., dismissed such claims, and said Republicans merely were insisting on an opportunity to offer amendments of their choosing, including some that address taxes, immigration and other issues unrelated to the farm bill.

“We all know we’re going to pass a farm bill, and any statement to the contrary is laughable,” McConnell said.

“In 2002 we went through a somewhat similar dance . . . and when the games stopped, we went back to the farm bill, had an open process for a week, and passed it.”

The GOP leader added, “The farm bill has not passed today because the games have not stopped. But I will confidently predict that at some point the games will stop, and we will pass it.”