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Conflict Over Dairy Provisions Impedes Farm Bill Progress

Jan 09, 2014

As reported by multiple sources this week, the major obstacle holding up a meeting of the 41 farm bill conferees is a last-minute dispute over the bill’s dairy provisions, including a dairy supply control program in the Senate’s version of the bill, which lost by a more than two-to-one margin on the House floor in June. Following a meeting of the four principals today, the chances of a meeting later in the week appeared increasingly unlikely, leaving Conferees with only four days to finish the bill next week. Congress will be out the week of the 20th, before returning at the end of the month.

Other details previously reported remain in the package, including allowing producers to keep their current crop acreage bases or to reallocate total base among the average of crops planted in 2009-2012 on a one-time basis. Producers would have a one-time choice between the PLC and ARC programs.