Vermonters,
Midwesterners Salute New National Dairy Program In A
‘Milk Toast’
WASHINGTON (Wednesday) – Senator Patrick Leahy, Senator
Jim Jeffords, and Congressman Bernie Sanders today clinked
milk-filled glasses with Midwestern Senators Herb Kohl
(D-Wis.), Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.)
to toast the new National Dairy Program in the new Farm Bill.
The Senators gathered in Leahy’s office, taking time out from
the concluding hours of debate on the farm bill, as the Senate
moved toward likely passage of the farm bill this
afternoon.
The National Dairy Program will provide payments comparable
to the Northeast Dairy Compact whenever the price for fluid
milk falls below $16.94 per hundredweight on up to 2.4 million
pounds of milk per producer annually. Payments will be made
retroactively to Dec. 1, 2001, and continue through September
2005. The Vermont Congressional Delegation worked together to
devise and advance the national dairy plan, and Senator Leahy
– a conferee on the farm bill and the former chairman of the
Senate Agriculture Committee – headed efforts in the
House-Senate conference on the bill to carry the plan over the
goal line.
Click
Here for a Fact Sheet on The National Dairy Program In
the New Farm Bill
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