Gillibrand, Snowe Look to Stabilize Milk Prices

Democrat senator Kirsten Gillibrand along with republican senator Olympia Snowe, from Maine, led a bipartisan coalition of senators in urging agriculture committee leaders to keep a key dairy pricing reform amendment in any final farm bill agreement.

The Snowe-Gillibrand amendment that was included in the senate Farm Bill would jump start the process to bring certainty for the nation’s dairy farmers by stabilizing milk pricing, has passed the full senate as part of the 2012 farm bill.

Specifically, the amendment would allow dairy industry groups to present milk pricing reforms to the U.S. Department of agriculture for consideration in a public hearing setting, and order the secretary of agriculture to release the department’s final proposal to congress.