Patrick Leahy: “I want to again focus as I did yesterday on the study of the Northeast dairy compact that will be contained in the…”

“I want to again focus as I did yesterday on the study of the Northeast dairy compact that will be contained in the appropriations bill as it winds its way through conference with the House and then comes back to the Senate. Under the Senate proposal, the Director of OMB will do a study on dairy, retail store, wholesale, and processor pricing in New England. As I mentioned yesterday, many Senators are very concerned that when the price that farmers get for their milk drops that the retail price-- the consumer price--often does not drop. Study after study shows this result. Wholesale or retail stores appear to be simply making more profits at the expense of farmers. This is one of the issues OMB should examine. But it is very important that OMB not just give us numbers. It will not be helpful to Congress, and will be misleading, if OMB just says, for example, that the average price of milk in stores during the first 6 months of the compact was a certain amount higher than some earlier amount. It will not assist decision makers at all if OMB then simply multiplies that difference by the number of gallons bought by persons on Food Stamps and concludes that the product of the multiplication is the 'harm' to the food stamp program. It is important for OMB to put the information in context or they shouldn't even do the study. I do not want information that I cannot use in deciding on legislative options.”