Statement of Senator Susan Collins at the July 9, 2001 Meeting of the Northeast Dairy Compact Commission

Good morning, everyone. I think that baby needs some milk. Couldn’t resist. It’s a pleasure to welcome the Northeast Dairy Compact and its Commission to the state of Maine and to be here this morning with my colleagues from the Maine Congressional Delegation. Along with Vermont, they’ve led the effort to establish the Northeast Dairy Compact. So I think it’s very fitting that we should meet here today to discuss how we can ensure the continued success of the Compact.

I want to start also by welcoming our Maine members who are here today, in particular Fred Hardy, who is a dairy farmer from New Sharon and a member of the Commission. He’s been a great advocate for Maine’s dairy farmers and is an invaluable source of advice for my staff and to me, and so I want to welcome all the Maine members, particularly Fred, our dairy farmer representative on the Compact.

I have long been a strong supporter of the Northeast Dairy Compact. Just before the Congressional recess, Senator Snowe and I joined a number of our colleagues in introducing in the Senate the Dairy Consumers and Producers Protection Act of 2001. Our legislation would permanently authorize the Northeast Dairy Compact. Wouldn’t it be great to not have to go through this same anxiety over and over and over? And it would allow several other states – New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland – to join the Compact. It also provides Congressional approval for the formation of Compacts in other regions of the country. I co-sponsored this legislation because I understand how successful the Compact has been. In balancing the interests of dairy farmers, processors, retailers and consumers by maintaining the stability of milk prices. In addition to maintaining the stability, the Compact provides farmers with absolutely essential direct payments. Last year 458 dairy farmers in Maine received payments from the Compact totaling 4.8 million dollars. The payments averaged approximately $10, 500 per farmer, and that was enough to help these farmers maintain economically viable operations. It helps sustain rural communities, and it ensures a reliable, consistent supply of locally produced dairy products for Maine consumers.

You can be assured that I am going to continue to work hard in the Senate to make my colleagues aware of just how successful the Northeast Dairy Compact has been. And I’ll also be certain to point out that the benefits of the Compact come at no cost to the taxpayer. I think that’s a very important point that we in Congress need to make to those of our colleagues who are less familiar with the Compact.

I’ve also been working to make the President aware of just how important the Northeast Dairy Compact is to me personally, and to Maine’s diary industry. Senator Snowe, Senator Specter and I recently wrote to the President to urge that dairy compacts be included as part of the administration’s dairy policy.

I want to make the point that this is not a partisan issue in the Congress; rather it’s a regional one. The Maine Delegation, as Tom mentioned, is united in supporting the reauthorization of the Dairy Compact. The opposition in the Senate is led by the two democratic Senators from Wisconsin, who always threatens to filibuster the renewal of the Compact. So it is not a partisan issue, it is in fact more a regional issue.

The success of the Northeast Dairy Compact in promoting the viability of dairy farming and sustaining rural communities in New England has not gone unnoticed. Many other states are seeking to emulate what we’ve been able to work out so well here. And indeed, 19 additional state legislatures have overwhelmingly passed state legislation authorizing their states to join into regional dairy compacts. The legislation that we introduced recognizes the strong support for additional compacts, and it provides Congressional support for these states to join either the Northeast Compact or to form compacts of their own in their regions of the country, depending on where they’re located. Obviously, the more of these regional compacts we can create, the better our chances are of getting this legislation through.

One of the questions about dairy compacts that’s been raised repeatedly is whether it’s encouraged over-production or increased production. And for all that the Northeast Dairy Compact has accomplished for farmers in our region it is a reasonable question to ask whether it leads to increased production, thus putting farmers from other parts of the country at a competitive disadvantage. We know, however, from numerous studies, that this is not the case. Since the Compact’s inception, milk production has increased by only 2.2% in the Northeast, while nationally production went up by 7.4 percent. Last year the amount of milk produced in our region actually fell slightly. Moreover, to insure that Northeast farmers do not increase their supply of milk to the detriment of farmers in other regions, the Compact Commission has instituted safeguards, as required by the authorizing legislation, that prevents the overproduction of milk. It’s important to note that the reauthorizing legislation provides those same sorts of overproduction safeguards as were provided in the original Dairy Compact legislation.

Now, as Tom mentioned and as all of you well know, the Northeast Dairy Compact is set to expire on October 30. So we have a lot of work to do together to make sure that that does not occur. I’ve heard from dairy farmers all over the state of Maine who have written to urge support for the reauthorization of the Compact. They’ve given me a lot of good examples that I’m going to be able to use in our debate. I look forward to continuing to work with the members of the Maine delegation, with our state department of agriculture, which has been a great leader in this area, with Maine’s dairy farmers, and work together as a region to ensure that the legislation we introduced before the recess is enacted.

If you think about it, if we don’t renew the Compact, what is the alternative? The alternative is that we would see more and more dairy farms disappear. The alternative is that local sources of milk would diminish. The alternative is that we would lose a very precious part of our state’s heritage and way of life. The alternative is that we would see more and more dairy farms converted to housing lots rather than preserving open space. I think the benefits of the Northeast Dairy Compact are overwhelmingly clear. I want to pledge to all of you that I will do everything in my power to work to see that it’s extended and made permanent. Thank you very much.