United States HR 4269: Dairy Pricing and Policy Commission Act of 2021

Bill Text

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117TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 4269
To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish the Dairy Pricing and
Policy Commission, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 30, 2021
Mr. KIND (for himself and Mr. GALLAGHER) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish the Dairy
Pricing and Policy Commission, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Dairy Pricing and Pol-4
icy Commission Act of 2021’’. 5
SEC. 2. DAIRY PRICING AND POLICY COMMISSION. 6
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 7
(1) The pace of consolidation in the dairy in-8
dustry as it relates to herd size is far surpassing 9
that seen in the majority of U.S. agriculture. 10
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(2) The number of small commercial dairy op-1
erations has declined from 146,685 in 1987 to 2
30,373 in 2017. 3
(3) The number of licensed dairy herds fell by 4
more than half between 2002 and 2019, despite milk 5
production continuing to grow. 6
(4) The loss of dairy operations poses signifi-7
cant economic challenges to many rural communities 8
with historic ties to dairy farming. 9
(5) A diverse and cross-regional dairy industry 10
is critical for food security and resiliency in the 11
United States. 12
(6) Continued declines of approximately 4 per-13
cent of dairy farms annually will negatively impact 14
rural communities throughout the country. 15
(7) In 2016, dairy farmers of all herd sizes 16
below 1,000 cows experienced higher total costs than 17
gross returns. 18
(8) In 2019, monthly exit rates among Wis-19
consin licensed dairy farms more than doubled from 20
2016 levels. 21
(b) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 6 months after 22
the date on which funds are first made available to carry 23
out this section, the Secretary shall establish a commission 24
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to be known as the ‘‘Dairy Pricing and Policy Commis-1
sion’’ (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Commission’’). 2
(c) RECOMMENDATIONS.— 3
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall de-4
velop legislative, regulatory, and market-based rec-5
ommendations for the following: 6
(A) Responding to periods of heightened 7
dairy production during low prices by consid-8
ering better supply chain coordination and mar-9
ket price signals. 10
(B) Enhancing the competitiveness of U.S. 11
dairy producers and dairy products in world 12
markets by identifying challenges and opportu-13
nities for new markets for dairy exports. 14
(C) Ensuring that Federal milk marketing 15
orders and rulemakings that relate to such or-16
ders are transparent and provide a fair return 17
to producers regardless of the end product for 18
which the milk is used. 19
(2) AVAILABLE RESEARCH.—In developing rec-20
ommendations under paragraph (1), the Commission 21
shall draw upon available research, including the re-22
port published in 2020 by the Economic Research 23
Service of the United States Department of Agri-24
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culture and titled ‘‘Consolidation in U.S. Dairy 1
Farming’’. 2
(d) MEMBERSHIP.— 3
(1) NUMBER AND APPOINTMENT.—The Com-4
mission shall be composed of 13 members appointed 5
by the Secretary as follows: 6
(A) At least 1 member representing a na-7
tional consumer organization. 8
(B) At least 1 member representing land- 9
grant colleges and universities or covered 10
NLGCA Institutions. 11
(C) At least 1 member representing the 12
food and beverage retail sector. 13
(D) 5 dairy producers (representing a vari-14
ety of farming practices and sizes) and 2 dairy 15
processors, appointed so as to balance geo-16
graphical distribution of milk production and 17
dairy processing, reflect major product seg-18
ments of dairy processing, and represent all re-19
gions of the United States equitably, including 20
States that operate outside of a Federal milk 21
marketing order. 22
(E) At least 2 members representing dairy 23
farmer, cooperative, or dairy processor, associa-24
tions. 25
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(F) At least 1 member representing dairy 1
industry experts in the field of milk pricing, fi-2
nance, marketing, risk management, consulting, 3
or advisory services (or some combination there-4
of). 5
(2) TERMS.—Each member shall be appointed 6
for the duration of the Commis