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News From
The Vermont Congressional Delegation
Dec. 10, 2001
Statement of the Vermont
Congressional Delegation on Dairy Policy
On Saturday, December 1, prices paid to farmers for
their milk dropped by almost $4.00 per hundred pounds, or 33 cents a
gallon, and yet store prices have not come down. It is because of such
a price drop that we have strongly supported the Northeast Interstate
Dairy Compact that expired on September 30 of this year.
We have worked together, in the House of
Representatives and in the Senate, to address the needs of Vermont
dairy farmers and our rural communities. The House came very close to
passing a national dairy program offered by Congressman Sanders that
would have helped dairy farmers throughout the nation by increasing
the minimum price to be paid for fluid milk by processors. The entire
delegation worked together on that effort. We are pleased that the
House-passed bill does extend the dairy price support program for
several years.
In the Senate, Senators Leahy and Jeffords,
coordinating with Congressman Sanders have proposed a different
approach which should be supported by a majority of Senators. It
provides a level of benefits equal to that which the compact would
have provided. We felt that efforts to extend the Northeast Compact,
or efforts to create a national dairy program based on setting a
minimum price for fluid milk, would not have survived a vote on the
Senate floor in part because the big processors are exerting enormous
political pressure on Congress.
Make no mistake, we still feel that National Dairy
Compact legislation is the best solution for protecting family farmers
in Vermont and throughout the country against low and volatile milk
prices. Apparently, because of strong political opposition, that
approach does not have enough support to pass Congress at this time.
However, pursuing the compact began the process of bringing the
various regions together and it created the leverage to get us to
where we are today.
While the language being worked out in the Senate
does not provide the long-term protection that family farmers deserve,
it will provide very real help to Vermont’s struggling dairy farmers
in the near term. In essence, they will receive the same kind of
financial support they received under the Northeast Dairy Compact.
This will give us two or three more years to work together to pass a
permanent program to help our dairy farmers which does not rely on
funds from the federal government. What is also positive is that a
number of additional states will be involved in the new program. This
creates additional support from the states of New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and West Virginia, joining with
Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine, Massachusetts and
Connecticut.
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