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U.S. SENATOR PATRICK
LEAHY
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CONTACT: Office of Senator
Leahy, 202-224-4242 |
VERMONT |
Leahy: Republicans’ Farm Bill
Filibuster
Hurts All Farmers
And Hurts Dairy Farmers The Most
[As Congress rapidly nears its year-end recess, Senate Republican
leaders continue to prevent final Senate action on the Farm Bill. Today
(Tuesday), for the second time in a week, Republican leaders kept the
Senate from ending the GOP filibuster against the bill. The vote for
cloture today was 54-43 (Sens. Patrick Leahy and Jim Jeffords voted with
the 54, for cloture). A third cloture vote – in which a supermajority, 60
votes, again is needed to end the filibuster – is set for Wednesday. If
the Senate does not pass the bill before the end of the year, it may be
months before the Senate’s bill can be conferenced with the House bill,
sending a final bill to the President’s desk. That long a delay would be
a particular hardship on dairy farmers, who no longer have the Northeast
Dairy Compact as a safety net. Leahy and Jeffords, joined by other
senators, included a counter-cyclical dairy program in the Senate’s bill,
along with steep increases in conservation funding and other benefits for
Vermont and other farm states. Following are Leahy’s comments:]
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"Some in the Senate are holding the Farm Bill
hostage – not really out of any basic policy disputes, but out of petty
partisanship – and it is hurting dairy farmers most of all. Punting the
Farm Bill into next year may be their idea of political fun, but it is
playing with the lives of thousands of family farmers. Farmers need
certainty to make their plans for the next growing season. They have to
apply for loans and get ready for Spring.
"This month dairy prices to farmers dropped about $4
per hundredweight. Are consumers seeing the difference on the store
shelves? Of course not. Farmers are losing income, and the dairy processing
giants are pocketing it. Unlike wheat or corn growers, who still have the
commodity programs to rely on, dairy farmers now have no safety net. The
longer Republican leaders push the Farm Bill into the future, the more
farmers will go under – it’s that simple."
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