James M. Jeffords: “we have spoken often in the past year, in this Chamber, about returning power back to the sovereign States to allow the…”

“we have spoken often in the past year, in this Chamber, about returning power back to the sovereign States to allow the States to work together with the Federal Government to solve the problems we face. Here is a fine example of such cooperative federalism. Most appropriately presented in the context of this farm bill here, the compact is a pilot project with a 5-year sunset. It simply needs congressional consent to be approved. Other States can do it by themselves. They are big enough. We cannot. I urge this body to give the New England States an opportunity to implement this test program. The compact has had an impressive journey through six New England State legislatures --six State legislatures. Two of them, primarily consumers have approved so they can help keep their dairy farmers and the rural life of Vermont alive. The Rhode Island State Legislature, representing over 1 million consumers and only 31 dairy farms, nearly unanimously passed this. Why should we be prohibited from doing what other States can do, merely because the Midwest believes and hopes that sometime in the future they can ship their milk to us because the price would get so high, because our farmers are out of business, that they could ship it over there to profit? They are welcome now. Why do they want to be so greedy?”