WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR), Ranking Member on the Senate Agriculture Committee, released a Farm Bill framework reflecting the priorities of Senate Republicans. The Senate Republicans’ framework includes several IDFA priorities, namely the outline for a SNAP Dairy Nutrition Incentives Program, or DNIP, which expands on the SNAP Healthy Fluid Milk Incentives (HFMI) program to include all varieties of milk, as well as cheese and yogurt and cultured products. The DNIP outline included in the Senate Republicans’ framework reflects the bipartisan Dairy Nutrition Incentives Program Act co-sponsored by U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) in the Senate and by U.S. Reps. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) and Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.) in the House, which gained IDFA support in 2023 and has remained the center of IDFA’s Farm Bill advocacy. The Dairy Nutrition Incentive Program Act currently has 8 bipartisan co-sponsors in the Senate and 15 bipartisan cosponsors in the House. The program would expand the HFMI projects—a 2018 Farm Bill program currently testing best practices for incentivizing milk purchases among SNAP beneficiaries in 19 states—to include a wide variety of nutritious milk and dairy products.
IDFA President and CEO Michael Dykes, D.V.M., said, “IDFA applauds Ranking Member Boozman and Senate Republicans for leading this effort to increase access to nutritious dairy products with a robust dairy nutrition incentives program. IDFA is also grateful to Chairwoman Stabenow for expanding the current incentive program in her Farm Bill framework. IDFA is committed to working with members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees to ensure a robust program, reflective of the widely popular and bipartisan Dairy Nutrition Incentives Program Act, becomes part of the next Farm Bill.”
The Farm Bill framework released today includes several other IDFA priorities. Importantly, the outline ensures any proposed changes to the Class I mover formula will be determined by USDA through the Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) process currently underway, consistent with IDFA’s stated goals.
“The USDA process to make changes to the FMMO system through a Federal Order Hearing has been under way for well over one year, and USDA will soon announce its recommended FMMO decision,” said Dykes. “IDFA members feel strongly that the Farm Bill should not predetermine the outcome of USDA’s ongoing FMMO process.”
The Senate Republicans’ 2024 Farm Bill outline also promises cost surveys to ensure make allowances accurately reflect the cost of manufacturing dairy products. This provision is consistent with IDFA’s requests for cost surveys for butter, cheddar cheese, nonfat dry milk, and whey in the next Farm Bill.
Today’s outline also makes the Dairy Forward Pricing Program permanent, thereby eliminating the possibility that forward pricing programs for Class II, III and IV proprietary plants and their producers will lapse if a new farm bill is not passed before the existing farm bill expires.
Finally, the framework would also allow schools to serve whole milk and reduced fat (2%) milk to students, pursuant to the House Agriculture Committee Chairman Thompson’s Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, which IDFA has supported (Sec. 12403 – p. 914).
“There remains much work to do for both Committees and all of Congress to develop a bipartisan Farm Bill that can win passage in both chambers to become law,” said Dykes. “IDFA and its member leaders will continue to advocate with bipartisan Committee leaders as well as their respective staffs to ensure our industry’s full set of priorities are reflected in future farm bill drafts and, ultimately, a bipartisan Farm Bill that can be enacted into law.”
The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), Washington, D.C., represents the nation’s dairy manufacturing and marketing industry, which supports more than 3.2 million jobs that generate $49 billion in direct wages and $794 billion in overall economic impact. IDFA’s diverse membership ranges from multinational organizations to single-plant companies, from dairy companies and cooperatives to food retailers and suppliers, all on the cutting edge of innovation and sustainable business practices. Together, they represent most of the milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt and cultured products, and dairy ingredients produced and marketed in the United States and sold throughout the world. Delicious, safe and nutritious, dairy foods offer unparalleled health and consumer benefits to people of all ages.
