Rod Grams: “I rise today in order to call attention to one of the most onerous barriers currently facing American agriculture. It is…”

“I rise today in order to call attention to one of the most onerous barriers currently facing American agriculture. It is a regional price-fixing cartel, which benefits only those producers within its own boundaries, at the direct expense of consumers. It is a patently unfair, unabashed attempt to distort basic principles of market forces. It is the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact, which has been in effect in New England States since July 1997. Today, Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and I introduce the Dairy Fairness Act, which would repeal the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact. As many southeastern States are passing enabling legislation to lay the groundwork in forming their own compacts, we feel it is necessary to once again review the notorious history of the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact, and its negative impact on consumers and on all dairy farmers--with the notable exception, of course, of the largest dairy industries within the compact region. The 1996 FAIR Act included significant reforms for diary policy. It set the stage for greater market orientation in dairy, including reform of the archaic Federal milk marketing orders. Yet despite a strong vote by the Senate to strip the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact from its version of the FAIR Act, and the deliberate exclusion of any compact language from the House version of the bill, a Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact provision was slipped into the conference report.”