Key Panel OKs Leahy Measure
Paving The Way For MILC Extension

. . . Bill Also Includes Farm Disaster Aid
That Would Help Vermont Farmers With Flood Losses 

WASHINGTON  (Thursday, March 22) – The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday afternoon approved legislation offered by Sen. Patrick Leahy that would pave the way for a full extension in the 2007 Farm Bill of the MILC program, the safety net that helps dairy farmers ride out downturns in milk prices.

The panel also approved nearly $4 billion in farm disaster relief, which would help farmers nationwide recover from emergencies they faced last year.  In Vermont, the aid would especially help dairy producers hit hard by flooding.  The bill also includes $95 million specially set aside to help dairy farmers in Vermont and across the country.  The provisions are included in a supplemental appropriations bill that includes funds for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, further Katrina-related relief, aid for refugees in Darfur and other trouble spots, and other mid-year appropriations adjustments.

The Leahy Amendment, which the committee approved by voice vote, provides a 10-year baseline that ensures funding for the MILC (Milk Income Loss Contract) program and lays the groundwork for reauthorizing the program in this year’s Farm Bill.  The counterpart House bill also includes a MILC provision that would extend the program for 13 months, though without Leahy’s ten-year baseline.  Leahy is a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, which wrote the Senate bill.

Leahy said he will continue to work with Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch in steering the MILC extension provisions through the remaining steps in the legislative process.  Leahy, Sanders and Welch also are working together to lay the groundwork for extending and improving the MILC program in this year’s Farm Bill.

“No goal in this year’s Farm Bill is more important to Vermont and to our state’s dairy farmers than extending and improving the MILC program,” said Leahy.  “As always, it’s tough slogging when it comes to getting dairy legislation down the field, but it’s early in the year and we’ve already gained some important yardage.”

Leahy also said the disaster aid – which was blocked for much of the past year by the previous Republican-controlled Congress – is still needed by Vermont’s farmers and that this may be the last chance to enact it.  “This would be an overdue shot in the arm for our farmers for last year’s natural disasters that they still haven’t recovered from,” he said.