Milk Regulatory Equity Act becomes law

President George W Bush has signed into law the Milk Regulatory Equity Act (S. 2120), closing a loophole that had allowed regulatory inequities between federal and state milk marketing orders in Arizona, California, and Nevada. This bill, which passed the United States Senate in December and the House of Representatives late in March, marks a major victory for the US dairy industry.

The new law will make it illegal for plants in southwestern states to sell milk into a state milk marketing area from a federally regulated milk marketing area without complying with either state or federal pricing regulations. Milk processors in Arizona, including producer-handlers that sell more than three million pounds of fluid milk per month, will be required to comply with federal regulations. The legislation also clarifies that plants in Nevada selling into a federal milk marketing order now must abide by federal pricing regulations.

The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) was part of a national coalition of producer and processor groups that supported the measure. These include the National Milk Producers Federation, the Dairy Institute of California, Western United Dairymen, and the Dairy Farmers of America.