Statement of Governor Howard Dean at the Monthly Meeting of the Northeast Dairy Compact Commission on April 11, 2001

First of all, thank you all for coming to Vermont. Secondly, let me thank Bernie and Jim and Pat Leahy for their incredibly great work in Washington. Their leadership and the whole New England Delegation and governors have been very supportive. This is where we put the politics aside, the Republicans and the Democrats, and work pretty well together. I am very pleased to say that the new governor in Massachusetts, Jane Swift, is very much a pro-Compact person. Hopefully we won’t have any of the kind of the scares that we had last time with the Senate president, who is also running for governor, which we should remember, those of us who are from Massachusetts. The Senate president decided he was going to undo the Compact. Obviously that would be a disaster. We’re in the business of adding 20 states to the Compact, not subtracting any, so I am very pleased that Jane has agreed to be a very vigorous advocate for the Compact for the remainder of her term. I think that’s another very, very good sign.

As you know, we have decided, at the suggestion of Senator Jeffords, to form governors’ group that’s going to push for this as well. We think that the commissioners and the Commission have done a very good job and need to continue to do a very good job in the ag community. That’s been very effective in mobilizing the agricultural community in the various states to influence those Senate votes, those House votes that we’re going to need, to get this passed.

The argument that the governors are going to make is a states’ rights argument. Mike Huckabee is the co-chair with me, from the same state as the Hutchinson brothers, one of whom we have in the House. And while we may disagree on a number of policies, we don’t disagree on this one. It is critical that we work together to get this done.

Our argument is going to be to Senators and Congressmen, “Look – When was the last time you ever turned down a Compact?” The truth is, I don’t believe they ever have turned down a Compact. There are lots of different kinds of compacts that states borrow into that have to be blessed by Congress, and Congress, to my knowledge, has never turned one down. Let’s not start with this one.

It is a unique approach. It has been put together by the states at no cost to the taxpayers, which makes a huge contribution towards fixing a problem the government couldn’t fix. It’s working well, it’s not perfect but it really makes a difference. Many millions of dollars have been returned to farmers. This year we figured the Compact made an average of 91 cents difference per hundredweight contribution. That’s not six brand new tractors, but it can mean the difference between making a decent living and going out of business. I think the average return was something like $15,000. Well, that’s a big difference, especially when you’re really struggling.

So, we think we’ve got a great solution. We’ve got a great story to tell. One of the things that we have been doing – that Leon’s been doing, that I’ve been doing, I know that the Congressional Delegation’s doing it and I know the Bobby’s been doing – is we’ve been going out to the Midwest and talking to farmers from Minnesota and Wisconsin. We think that farmers, if they knew and understood the Compact in those states, might support the Compact. What they’re being told by some of the political people, particularly the processors, is a lot of stuff that’s not so. When we sit down and talk to farmers we find that they’re much more willing to listen than some of their political representatives are. We’re trying to build a base as well to go influence the political people from their home states to say, “wait a minute, let’s be careful if we vote against this thing.” Frankly, I think the people from Wisconsin and Minnesota are crazy to oppose this. They’re losing farms at twice the rates we are, and have been doing so for the last couple of years. And yet, their solution is to make sure our loss rate increases instead of decreasing theirs. I don’t think that their farmers are going to buy that for a very long period of time. So I appreciate the work that’s being done by the Commission. I’m very interested in seeing, and very appreciative of Jim for loaning us Andrew for a while to see how we make out with our efforts at the governor’s level to help Bernie and Jim and Pat and the others from the delegation in New England lobby for this. This is going to be difficult. I don’t want to get into the strategy too much, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we have to tack this on another bill, seeing as what the President’s view of the Dairy Compact is. But one way or another we’re going to do everything we possibly can to do this, and this time around it’s not of course, reauthorization, it’s a permanent adoption, and it’s not for the six states, it’s for the 25.

So let me again thank you. I know you’ve got some other things to do and Senator Jeffords, Congressman Sanders and I are going to go across and do a press conference on this in my office. But I really thank you for the opportunity, for letting me come, and I thank you for the time you put in on this. I know this takes time away from your businesses and I know it’s a lot of work and a lot of travel. Sometimes in New England, particularly this past winter, that’s pretty difficult. And I really appreciate it. You’ve done an awfully good job for farmers of the New England region and I think we’ve got something we can be proud of and frankly we’ve got something that we can point to as a model for other people around the country, for these people working together to support themselves when government solutions fail. Government solutions have failed elsewhere in agriculture. We’ve done something right here, we ought to make sure the rest of the country looks to what we’ve done and the good things that we’ve accomplished. Thank you.