Glenn Thompson: “Yesterday morning, I had the opportunity to attend part of Fulton Bank's 39th annual Agriculture Seminar, which is a…”

“Yesterday morning, I had the opportunity to attend part of Fulton Bank's 39th annual Agriculture Seminar, which is a day-long informational event that draws individuals from all over the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The event is free and featured numerous speakers, including agriculture economist Andrew Frankenfield and other industry experts. Mr. Speaker, as the House Committee on Agriculture prepares the next farm bill, there has been universal agreement that the dairy industry's Margin Protection Program needs to be reformed in advance. To address this, we were able to make much-needed changes in last week's bipartisan budget deal. The final agreement took a number of actions that will revamp the program to better serve participating dairy farmers. To help the program to be more accurate and responsive during difficult months, monthly margined calculations have been changed to bimonthly. To help the program better reflect the growth in dairy herd sizes, the new law expands the first tier from 4 million to 5 million pounds. The new law raises the catastrophic coverage level from $4 per hundred weight to $5 per hundred weight for the first tier of covered production. It also reduces premiums for the first 5 million pounds of production, making higher levels of coverage more affordable to provide more protection against low margins. Finally, the new law allows for the development of insurance policies for livestock producers, including for dairy farmers.…”