Milk program absent from early version of farm bill

WASHINGTON (AP)--A long-running price support program for dairy farmers is not included in the first version of a mammoth farm bill working its way through Congress, infuriating lawmakers in some milk-producing areas.

Congress is working on renewing the five-year farm bill which expires in September. The first draft of the bill released May 23 does not have money for the Milk Income Loss Contract, or MILC program.

"We can't just abandon small and medium-sized dairy farmers," said Rep. Randy Kuhl, R-NY. "Giving up on the MILC program gives up on thousands of dairy families, which should not be acceptable."

Kuhl and Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, are trying to line up support in the House to put the program back into the farm bill, possibly as early as May 24 when lawmakers meet to consider changes.

In a letter to top House agriculture lawmakers, Gillibrand and Kuhl wrote that the program helps ensure fresh milk is available in all parts of the United States.

Without MILC, they argued, "the security of the food supply will be jeopardized."

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-MN, responded in a statement, saying it would be easier to renew the program if the White House agreed to a short extension of MILC in a war spending bill about to come up for a vote.

MILC briefly expired in 2005 when legislators could not agree to terms on renewal, and has teetered on disagreements in Congress based on regional, not political, differences.

It was renewed for two years, at a cost of roughly $1 billion.

MILC is now due to expire a month before the farm bill, and that is part of the reason why the new agriculture spending measure does not continue it--under the budget process, adding money for MILC would require taking it from some other program.

And because dairy farmers often disagree about the program based on which region of the country they live in and how large their farms are, MILC is often one of the last pieces of the farm bill to be decided.

The program's price supports only kick in when the cost of Class I milk falls below $16.94 per hundredweight.

The program spent roughly $2 billion in its first three years. The biggest share, more than $400 million, went to farmers in Wisconsin, while Minnesota dairy farmers received about $162 million.

5 Star OK

6/4/07

10

B

Date: 5/31/07

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