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Congress Still Working On Farm Bill; Expanded MILC Program Approved
Washington—Congressional negotiators were unable again this week to finish work on a new farm bill and instead sent to President Bush a two-week extension of the 2002 farm bill.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Bush is expected to sign the two-week extension. The most recent extension signed by Bush expired today.
Lawmakers had hoped to finsh the farm bill this week so that a final version could have been debated on the House and Senate floors next week. But following a meeting that lasted until early this morning, some key issues, including the size of payments to wealthy farmers, remained unresolved.
Negotiators had reached a tentative agreement late last week on how to pay for the new farm bill, but are still resolving policy issues.
At least one of those issues was dairy-related. Vermont’s congressional delegation announced today that congressional negotiators have agreed to both extend and strengthen the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program.
Conferees from the Senate and House agriculture committees agreed early this morning by voice vote to a proposal from US Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to renew and expand the MILC program.
The new MILC provisions would “amplify” the help to Vermont dairy farmers in three ways, according to a press release from Vermont’s congressional delegation, which also includes US Sen. Bernie Sanders and US Rep. Peter Welch.
First, for the first time, feed costs would be included as a factor in triggering program payments. The MILC program’s new “feed cost adjuster” will be based on three commodities used in feeding cows: corn, alfalfa hay and soybeans.
Second, the bill would raise the percentage payment rate under the MILC program from 34 percent to 45 percent. And third, the size of herds covered by the MILC program would be increased, from about 120 cows now to about 165 cows.
As originally included in the 2002 farm bill, the MILC program authorized payments to dairy producers when the price of Class I milk in Boston fell below $16.94 per hundredweight. Payments were equal to 45 percent of the difference on the producer’s monthly milk production on up to 2.4 million pounds per year; that percentage was reduced to 34 percent starting in October of 2005.
In its version of the new farm bill, the House reauthorized the MILC program at the same terms that are currently in effect. The Senate’s version of the farm bill increased the payment factor to 45 percent for the period October 1, 2008, through August 31, 2012 and increased the annual eligible payment quantity from 2.4 million pounds to 4.15 million pounds for the same period.
“This MILC expansion is a major step forward in protecting family farmers because it moves us in the direction of taking farmers’ rising costs into account when we set a price floor,” Sanders commented. “This means farmers will get a stronger safety net in these times of rising feed costs.”
Farm bill negotiators have been trying to appease President Bush in
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