Madison - After months of frustration over the slowness of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin today expressed relief over an announcement yesterday that dairy farmers in Wisconsin had begun to receive dairy assistance funds. Rep. Baldwin had earlier criticized the USDA, and Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, for failing to comply with U.S. law to distribute dairy assistance to farmers in a timely fashion. Yesterday, the USDA announced the first batch of payments under the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) to farmers, over three months later than man DATEd by Congress.

Rep. Baldwin stressed, "Dairy producers in my district are suffering severe financial hardship as a result of depressed milk prices. The past three months placed an undo hardship on farmers throughout Wisconsin who have been suffering the effects of some of the lowest prices for milk in decades."

By law, the USDA was required to deliver supplemental dairy assistance to eligible dairy farmers within 60 days of the law being enacted (making the compliance DATE July 13, 2002). On July 11, 2002 Rep. Baldwin and other members of the Wisconsin delegation wrote a letter to Secretary Veneman urging that the Secretary comply with the law and move forward expeditiously with the MILC program. Rep. Baldwin also asked for an immediate meeting with Secretary Veneman or her staff to discuss this issue. On September 18th, Rep. Baldwin again demanded that the Secretary immediately release payments to farmers under the MILC program.

Since July of 2001, the price of Class III milk (used for the production of cheese) has dropped nearly one-third, from $15.00 per hundredweight, to roughly $10.00 per hundredweight. This has left Wisconsin dairy farmers struggling to make ends meet.

The MILC program financially compensates dairy producers when domestic milk prices fall below a specified level. Wisconsin dairy farmers are expected to receive $783,600,000 through the new program by September 30, 2005; that is the largest outlay among all fifty states. The first wave of payments were directly deposited in producers' accounts yesterday. However, not all checks were issued and further waves of payments are expected.

"This is a good first step in leveling the playing field for Wisconsin farmers, but there is still a long way to go," said Rep. Baldwin. "The farmers that I meet are struggling and are frustrated with a USDA that seems more interested in their internal bureaucracies than in the plight of the family farmer. The fact that only some of the payments have been made is a further insult to Wisconsin dairy farmers."

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