Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 106th Congress, First Session, Volume 145, Part 14 Page: 19,346
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19346
Hutchinson
Kennedy
Kerry
Kohl
Kyl
Lautenberg
LugarCONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE
McCain
Mikulski
Moynihan
Nickles
Reed
Roth
SantorumSarbanes
Schumer
Smith (NH)
Snowe
Specter
Thompson
VoinovichNOT VOTING-1
Mack
The motion was agreed to.
Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I move
to reconsider the vote.
Mr. SPECTER. I move to lay that
motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was
agreed to.
Mr. SPECTER addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr.
BUNNING). The Senator from Pennsyl-
vania is recognized.
AMENDMENT NO. 1512 TO AMENDMENT NO. 1499
(Purpose: To reauthorize, and modify the
conditions for, the consent of Congress to
the Northeast Dairy Compact, to grant the
consent of Congress to the Southern Dairy
Compact, and to require the Secretary of
Agriculture to use certain methods for
pricing milk under consolidated Federal
milk marketing orders)
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I send
an amendment to the desk and ask for
its immediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The
clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Pennsylvania [Mr. SPEC-
TER], proposes an amendment numbered 1512
to amendment No. 1499.
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I ask
unanimous consent that reading of the
amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without
objection, it is so ordered.
(The text of the amendment is print-
ed in today's RECORD under "Amend-
ments Submitted.")
Mr. SPECTER. This amendment calls
for the creation of a dairy compact
that would extend beyond the New
England States, which currently have a
dairy compact, and would include a
number of other States, such as Penn-
sylvania, New York, and others. The
purpose of this dairy compact is to sta-
bilize the price of milk. The price of
milk has fluctuated enormously. In De-
cember of last year, it was as high as
$17.34 per hundredweight; in June of
this year, it went down to $11.42 per
hundredweight.
There is currently a dairy compact in
effect for the Northeastern States-not
including Pennsylvania or New York-
which will expire in October of this
year. The compact will provide some
stability in the industry and will guar-
antee consumers an uninterrupted sup-
ply of milk. There has been some con-
cern expressed about the cost to the
consumers. When the Northeast Com-
pact went into effect, the prices for
milk within the compact region were 5
cents lower than retail prices in the
rest of the Nation.
This bill would authorize member
States to enter into a voluntary agree-ment to create a minimum price for
milk in the compact region that takes
into account the regional differences in
the costs of production. In addition to
providing the stability, it will ensure,
with an appropriate safety net, that
milk can be produced and be available
for very important programs like
WIC-Women, Infants, and Children-
and the availability generally.
Pennsylvania passed legislation that
will enable Pennsylvania to enter into
this compact if it is authorized by the
Congress. Some 40 Senators have co-
sponsored similar legislation, and Gov-
ernor Ridge signed legislation that
would permit my State of Pennsyl-
vania to enter into the compact.
Mr. President, as I outlined earlier,
when seeking a unanimous consent
agreement, I do not intend to press this
issue to a vote. I do not intend to do so
because of the rule of the Senate that
bars legislation on an appropriations
bill-a recently revived rule. But I am
putting it in the RECORD today and
outlining its basic purpose, with the in-
tent to bring it up in the conference
with the House to try to get this en-
acted into law.
I am pleased now to yield to the dis-
tinguished Senator from New York,
Mr. SCHUMER.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen-
ator from New York is recognized.
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I
thank my friend and colleague from
Pennsylvania. I am proud to work with
him on this amendment. As was stated,
this would reauthorize the Northeast
Dairy Compact and extend it to New
York and Pennsylvania, as well as New
Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and Ohio.
It also implements the 1-A pricing
structure.
I have visited dairy farms throughout
New York State, and I have become an
enthusiastic supporter of the compact,
which will preserve the economy and a
rural way of life in my State and
throughout the country. Over the last
10 years, New York State has lost a
third of its dairy farms, dropping from
13,000 to 8,600. These are not just 8,600
farms; they are the backbone of a rural
economy. We in New York State have
the third largest rural population of
any State, and the dairy compact is
vital.
I have talked to constituents in New
York City, and they would, in some
cases, pay a little bit more for milk.
But we need to bring both parts of the
State together. As I have asked my up-
state constituents to sometimes con-
sider the problems we have downstate
and be mindful of those, I ask the same
of my downstate constituents about
upstate.
The cost is not great. The New Eng-
land compact price of milk has not
risen by more than 4 cents a year; that
is, $3.50 a family. WIC is exempt. There
is a move I support to exempt senior
citizen programs.August 4, 1999
So it is not going to cost anyone very
much to help preserve a portion of our
State and a way of life. I am dis-
appointed, of course, that we were un-
able to garner the 60 votes for the New
England compact. I understand why
the Senator from Pennsylvania-and I
agree with him-will not pursue this to
a vote at this point, but we do this in
hopes that in conference we can be
added to the compact.
Both of my good friends from Wis-
consin led a strong, valiant fight on
the other side. The only thing I would
ask them to understand is how des-
perately our State needs this compact.
I am hopeful that we can find some
common ground that will benefit both
areas.
But in the meantime, New York
needs entry into the compact. We need
1-A, and I hope that my colleagues will
look at this amendment and might be
able to support it in conference.
I yield whatever remaining time I
have. I thank the Senator from Penn-
sylvania for yielding time to me.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen-
ator from Wisconsin.
Mr. KOHL. Mr. President, I had
hoped that the last vote had ended the
debate on dairy compacts. But if my
colleagues wish to eulogize these car-
tels, I am happy to join them.
First, I want to explain why I care so
much about this issue. Wisconsin is the
dairy state. We have 22,000 farms, and
almost all of them family-owned busi-
nesses. We have thousands more resi-
dents who make their living buying
and selling dairy products, farm equip-
ment, barns, feed, even the early morn-
ing coffee served to the farmers who
come to town straight from their milk-
ing barns each morning. Dairy com-
pacts do not only strike at an industry
in my state. They strike at the heart
and soul of Wisconsin, at our way of
life.
The Northeast dairy compact legisla-
tively raises the price of class I milk
above the prevailing federal milk mar-
keting order price for farmers in the
States lucky enough to be in the com-
pact region. By a complicated formula,
all dairy farmers in the region-regard-
less of what class milk they produce or
for what use-receive some extra sub-
sidy from the region's milk processors
based on their overall milk production.
Of course, this is a classic anti-market
incentive for these farmers to produce
more milk than the region needs or de-
mands.
Besides having a very real cost to the
Treasury, the overproduction of all
sorts of milk in the compact region
causes prices to fall in non-compact
states for milk used to produce cheese,
butter, milk powder and other products
likely to be exported out of State. If
the Northeast dairy compact becomes
permanent, the oversupply problem
will grow exponentially as Northeast
farmers make the capital investments
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United States. Congress. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 106th Congress, First Session, Volume 145, Part 14, book, August 1999; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30912/m1/27/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.