U.S. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY

White House And Its GOP Allies Kill MILC Extension . . . For Now  
 

WASHINGTON (Saturday, Oct. 9) -- As Congress worked through the weekend at the end of the legislative session, House Republican leaders Saturday killed a two-year extension of the MILC program that protects dairy farmers from depressed prices for the milk they produce.  The program is modeled on the benefits of the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact. 

The extension -- offered in a House-Senate Appropriations conference committee negotiating session by Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) -- also included major enhancements that would increase benefits to family farmers.  Leahy is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. 

The Milk Income Compensation Loss Program (MILC), which the members of the Vermont Congressional Delegation -- Sen. Patrick Leahy, Sen. Jim Jeffords and Rep. Bernie Sanders -- had led in including in the Farm Bill of 2002, is due to expire a year from now, September 2005.  MILC has brought more than $45 million to Vermont dairy farmers in the last two years. 

In House-Senate Appropriations negotiations Thursday night on the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill, Leahy and Kohl won bipartisan support among Senate conferees -- in a vote of 8 to 7 -- for their amendment to extend the MILC program, and Sanders had rounded up enough votes for the amendment to prevail also on the House side of the negotiating table.  At that point, House Republican leaders, collaborating with the White House, ended the negotiations and prevented a final vote on the MILC amendment, despite the fact that just three days ago, while in Wisconsin, President Bush endorsed extending the MILC program extension.  Saturday, Republican leaders declared the MILC extension issue dead for this year. 

Leahy said, "We had the votes, so they picked up the ball and ran away.  The President and his allies showed how low dairy farmers really are on their list of priorities.  If this is how they are treating dairy farmers now, I shudder to think how they would treat them later.  This is a flip flop that will be heard on every dairy farm in the country." 

Sanders said, "President Bush and House Republican leaders have shown once again that they are no friend to America's family dairy farmers.  It's unfortunate that what they say on the campaign trail just does not reflect their true position.  One call from the President and this would have been a done deal.  Maybe if dairy farmers could afford $1,500-a-plate Republican fundraisers like the corporate lobbyists for Halliburton and Enron the President might have actually supported us.  They may have won this round but the Vermont delegation will be back."

Jeffords, said, "This program ensures that dairy farmers in Vermont are paid a fair price for their product, despite price fluctuations.  It deserves to be renewed, and our farmers deserve certainty about its future.  I tip my milking bucket to Pat Leahy for his leadership in a valiant effort, and we will keep pushing forward for our farmers."  

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