[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 178 (Thursday, December 3, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H13471]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HELP THE DAIRY FARMERS

  (Mr. ARCURI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to alert my 
colleagues to a piece of legislation that I have introduced to assist 
our dairy farmers across the country in their critical time of need. 
Dairy farmers across my upstate New York district have come to me and 
asked for help. They have always been there to provide food for us as 
consumers, and now it is time for us to help them continue the long 
tradition of family-owned and operated dairy farms that are passed from 
generation to generation.
  My bill is inspired by a piece of legislation introduced in the New 
York State Senate by Senator Darrel Aubertine and would reduce hauling 
costs passed on to dairy farmers by processors and milk haulers. The 
bill eliminates hauling costs for milk producers and clarifies that the 
ownership of the milk is transferred from the milk producers to the 
milk plant when it leaves the farm and is mixed with the other farmers' 
milk.
  The bill also makes it unlawful for processors to charge a producer 
any cost incurred in the process of picking up the milk and delivering 
it to a milk plant receiving station or transfer station.
  The time to act for our dairy farmers is now.

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