WASHINGTON — Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand moved to block a key part of a milk supply management program in the Senate Wednesday, setting up a conflict over the best approach to rewriting dairy policy well before next year’s farm bill debate.
Mrs. Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is trying to stop a voluntary system by which farmers would be discouraged from expanding production. The setup of the program hurts small and medium sized farms, Mrs. Gillibrand said in an interview Wednesday.
Mrs. Gillibrand’s measure is part of a complex spending bill moving through the Senate this week, and it also plays into the work a debt reduction committee is doing to identify deep cuts to domestic programs — including agriculture — by a late November deadline. She has filed an amendment to the bill to prevent any spending on the proposed program.
At issue is whether a newly designed dairy program should include supply management in order to keep farmers from overproducing, which tends to drive milk prices lower. Rep. Collin C. Peterson, D-Minn., the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, has proposed a system that pays farmers on less than their full production of milk when the market indicates supply may outpace demand.
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