USDA to Begin
Making Dairy Payments; Leahy, Jeffords and Sanders Hail
Long-Awaited Payments
(Oct. 15) -- The Vermont Congressional
Delegation -- Sen. Patrick Leahy, Sen. Jim Jeffords and Rep.
Bernie Sanders – Tuesday announced that the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) will finally begin making long-awaited
payments to Vermont dairy farmers under the new national dairy
program.
The new dairy program was championed by the
Vermont Congressional Delegation and enacted as part of the
new farm bill, signed into law in May. The Department
missed the statutory deadline requiring USDA to make payments
to dairy farmers by Oct. 1, and in late September, under
pressure from Leahy, Jeffords and Sanders, promised Vermont
dairy farmers that payments would be made by Oct. 15.
"Dairy farmers finally will receive
payments covering the months of December 2001 through
September 2002," said Leahy. "With milk prices as low as
they have been, these payments are sorely needed. I am
glad the long wait is finally over.”
Jeffords said, "While I recognize that
farmers will continue to struggle given the current price of
milk, I am hopeful these payments will provide some relief
until milk prices recover. These payments won't make
milking a cow any easier, but they might make paying the bills
less painful."
"Against incredible odds, the Vermont
delegation was able to push forward a national dairy
program that will provide substantial help to family dairy
farmers in Vermont and across the country, said
Sanders. While it has been disappointing that USDA
took so long to get the payments out, the help will be welcome
news to farmers who are facing record low
prices."
The startup of payments has been anxiously
awaited by Vermont's dairy farmers, who are facing the lowest
milk prices in ten years. Prices plummeted by nearly $4
per hundredweight of milk last December and have fallen
virtually each month since then. Milk prices have been this
low only three times in the last 25 years. Many
producers also are facing higher feed costs due to both
drought and flooding and to higher feed corn prices. Low
milk prices are providing windfall profits for milk processors
like Dean Foods and supermarkets: While the prices
farmers receive for their milk has plummeted since December
2001, consumer milk prices in the New England states remain
virtually unchanged.
The law required USDA to begin enrolling
producers in the program in July and to issue the first
payments to producers by Oct. 1. USDA failed to begin
the signup on time and did not allow producers to enroll until
Aug. 13. In August Leahy, Jeffords and Sanders wrote to
Agriculture Secretary Veneman, urging her to avoid further
delays and to do all possible to meet the Oct. 1 deadline for
making payments. Last month Leahy grilled Veneman on
USDA's handling of the new dairy program during a Senate
Agriculture Committee hearing. Veneman said USDA would
not likely meet the Oct. 1 deadline, but she said she would do
everything possible to make the payments sometime in
October. Finally, on Sept. 27, USDA officials held a
news conference assuring dairy farmers that payments would be
made by Oct. 15 at the latest.
# #
# # #
|