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Obey calls for congressional leaders to bring dairy milc safety net extension to a vote
Without Action, Successful Dairy Program Ends
At Midnight On Friday, September 30th
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a statement on the House floor today Seventh District Congressman Dave Obey (D-WI) asked the Republican congressional leadership to bring up legislation that would extend the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program, which has provided $400 million to Wisconsin dairy farmers since the program was enacted in 2002.
“Last year, during the Conference on the Disaster Supplemental, Senator Herb Kohl offered, and Senate Conferees adopted, a provision extending MILC for two years to bring it into line with the rest of the Farm Bill commodity programs, which expire in 2007. Congressman Don Sherwood (R-PA) and I had lined up enough votes on the House side to accept that amendment,” Obey said. “To prevent that from happening, the Republican Chairman of the Conference gaveled the meeting to a close and we never met again on the subject.”
“Despite the fact that the President had said in my hometown on that same day that he favored the extension to the MILC program, when my office called the White House asking him to intervene in order to get that conference reopened so that the MILC program could be extended, the White House declined,” Obey added.
“The MILC program is now scheduled to expire at the end of this week. If that happens, we will have lost an important safety net for Wisconsin’s dairy farmers,” Obey concluded. “I urge the House Agriculture Authorizing Committee to immediately report out to this floor legislation extending MILC so that America’s dairy farmers do not lose that vital program, and I urge the Republican leadership of the House to see to it that the Agriculture Committee does just that.”
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