From the Office of Senator Kerry

Thursday, February 14, 2002

Washington, DC – Senator John F Kerry (D-MA) today helped lead efforts to include dairy provisions in the final version of the Farm Bill, which passed the Senate today in a vote of 58 to 40. Under the Senate Farm Bill, dairy farmers will receive the same level of financial support they received under the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact, which expired last September.

Senator Kerry said, "I promised Massachusetts farmers last summer that I would fight like hell to keep the dairy compact alive and today's Senate win means that we are very close to delivering a big victory for Western Massachusetts. Now we need to finish the job by making sure that the final agreement includes critical protections for our struggling dairy farmers, leveling the playing field with farmers in the mid west. I don't think Massachusetts farmers should take a backseat to anyone when it comes to competing hard and playing by the rules to get our dairy products to market and Congress needs to hear our farmers' voices on that issue."

The Senate Farm Bill allocates $2 billion for dairy provisions. Of that, $500 million will establish a dairy program for twelve Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, including Massachusetts. The remaining 38 states will receive $1.5 billion to establish federal payments whenever the average farm milk price for a calender quarter is below the average price for the same quarter during the previous five years.

The Farm Bill will now will be sent to a conference committee to be reconciled with the House version of the bill, which does not contain similar dairy provisions.

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