Senators now press OMB to promptly approve proposal
WASHINGTON, DC - Today, U.S. Senators Arlen Specter and Bob Casey announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has agreed to raise the price support for dairy products as a first step to relieve hard-pressed dairy farmers in Pennsylvania and across the nation. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack made the announcement today during a meeting with 14 Senators from states in which dairy is an integral industry.
“I’m glad the Secretary of Agriculture and Office of Management and Budget have taken action to provide some immediate help,” Senator Specter said. “This meaningful but temporary increase in the Dairy Price Support program will begin to restore farm level prices and help restore producers’ ability to produce basic cash flow for their operations.”
“Dairy farmers continue to struggle to make a living at a time when the money they bring home for their milk only covers a fraction of the cost to produce it,” said Senator Casey. “The meeting today with Secretary Vilsack was productive but there is still a lot of work to be done to prevent Pennsylvania from losing our dairy farms, which would seriously jeopardize the economy of the entire Commonwealth.”
Senators Specter and Casey emphasized that this represented another step in meeting the needs of farmers: “More needs to be done. While this action is the maximum that can be done under current law, we are exploring possible further action on the Agriculture appropriations bill.”
Secretary Vilsack said in today’s meeting that the Department of Agriculture was negotiating a final support price increase with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and hopes to have a decision prior to the August recess. In an effort to expedite the process, Senators Specter and Casey joined 12 other Senators in sending a letter to Director of OMB Peter Orszag urging that he act promptly to approve of the USDA’s planned price support increase.
This announcement comes on the heels of a roundtable Senator Specter hosted in Washington, D.C. on July 22nd with various stakeholders from Pennsylvania to discuss challenges facing the dairy industry with USDA Undersecretary Jim Miller.
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