Political Quotes

“Yesterday I filed amendment No. 740, which allows dairy farmers in Pennsylvania to receive a one-time emergency assistance payment of $2.50 for every hundredweight of milk they produced over the past 6 months. Dairy farmers in my home State and other Northeastern States are at the end of their rope. They have cut corners and pared their operations down to the absolute necessities, but they simply cannot make ends meet. Prices for feed and fuel have more than doubled over the past year and a half, but the price farmers get for their milk has not kept pace. Consequently, dairy farmers in Pennsylvania are losing about $5 on every hundredweight of milk they produce. For a small dairy farmer with 75 or so cows, this could mean a loss of around $20,000 a year. During the last congressional recess, I toured two dairy farms in different regions of Pennsylvania and talked to dozens of farmers. I heard stories about draining savings accounts, trying to patch repair broken equipment, leaving bills unpaid, and selling cows just to keep the farm going.”