Mitch Landrieu: “I have heard loudly and clearly from our farmers about how important this is. Frankly, Mr. President, this is an issue…”

“I have heard loudly and clearly from our farmers about how important this is. Frankly, Mr. President, this is an issue of fairness for the whole Nation. We are not attempting to be unfair to any particular area. This is about competition. It is about free and fair trade. It is about self-help, managing risk, and about an idea that a compact can be beneficial to all parties involved. The Northeast Dairy Compact, enacted in 1996, and due to expire this year, has proven extremely successful in balancing the interests of consumers, dairy farmers, processors, and retailers, by maintaining milk price stability, and doing so at no cost to taxpayers. We have an opportunity to assure consumers in other states an adequate, affordable milk supply while maintaining positive balance sheets for our farms, whose social and economic contributions remain so critical to the vitality of our country's rural communities. It is long past the time for us to permit states the opportunity to provide their farmers the stability they so desperately need.”