109TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 2120

AN ACT

To ensure regulatory equity between and among all dairy

farmers and handlers for sales of packaged fluid milk

in federally regulated milk marketing areas and into

certain non-federally regulated milk marketing areas

from federally regulated areas, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Milk Regulatory Eq5 uity Act of 2005’’.
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1 SEC. 2. MILK REGULATORY EQUITY.

2 (a) MINIMUM MILK PRICES FOR HANDLERS; EXEMP3 TION.—Section 8c(5) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act

4 (7 U.S.C. 608c(5)), reenacted with amendments by the

5 Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, is amend6 ed by adding at the end the following new subparagraphs:

7 ‘‘(M) MINIMUM MILK PRICES FOR HANDLERS.—

8 ‘‘(i) APPLICATION OF MINIMUM PRICE RE9 QUIREMENTS.—Notwithstanding any other provision

10 of this section, a milk handler described in clause

11 (ii) shall be subject to all of the minimum and uni12 form price requirements of a Federal milk marketing

13 order issued pursuant to this section applicable to

14 the county in which the plant of the handler is lo15 cated, at Federal order class prices, if the handler

16 has packaged fluid milk product route dispositions,

17 or sales of packaged fluid milk products to other

18 plants, in a marketing area located in a State that

19 requires handlers to pay minimum prices for raw

20 milk purchases.

21 ‘‘(ii) COVERED MILK HANDLERS.—Except as

22 provided in clause (iv), clause (i) applies to a han23 dler of Class I milk products (including a producer24 handler or producer operating as a handler) that—

25 ‘‘(I) operates a plant that is located within

26 the boundaries of a Federal order milk mar-
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1 keting area (as those boundaries are in effect as

2 of the date of the enactment of this subpara3 graph);

4 ‘‘(II) has packaged fluid milk product

5 route dispositions, or sales of packaged fluid

6 milk products to other plants, in a milk mar7 keting area located in a State that requires

8 handlers to pay minimum prices for raw milk

9 purchases; and

10 ‘‘(III) is not otherwise obligated by a Fed11 eral milk marketing order, or a regulated milk

12 pricing plan operated by a State, to pay min13 imum class prices for the raw milk that is used

14 for such dispositions or sales.

15 ‘‘(iii) OBLIGATION TO PAY MINIMUM CLASS

16 PRICES.—For purposes of clause (ii)(III), the Sec17 retary may not consider a handler of Class I milk

18 products to be obligated by a Federal milk mar19 keting order to pay minimum class prices for raw

20 milk unless the handler operates the plant as a fully

21 regulated fluid milk distributing plant under a Fed22 eral milk marketing order.

23 ‘‘(iv) CERTAIN HANDLERS EXEMPTED.—Clause

24 (i) does not apply to—
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1 ‘‘(I) a handler (otherwise described in

2 clause (ii)) that operates a nonpool plant (as

3 defined in section 1000.8(e) of title 7, Code of

4 Federal Regulations, as in effect on the date of

5 the enactment of this subparagraph);

6 ‘‘(II) a producer-handler (otherwise de7 scribed in clause (ii)) for any month during

8 which the producer-handler has route disposi9 tions, and sales to other plants, of packaged

10 fluid milk products equaling less than

11 3,000,000 pounds of milk; or

12 ‘‘(III) a handler (otherwise described in

13 clause (ii)) for any month during which—

14 ‘‘(aa) less than 25 percent of the total

15 quantity of fluid milk products physically

16 received at the plant of the handler (ex17 cluding concentrated milk received from

18 another plant by agreement for other than

19 Class I use) is disposed of as route disposi20 tion or is transferred in the form of pack21 aged fluid milk products to other plants; or

22 ‘‘(bb) less than 25 percent in aggre23 gate of the route disposition or transfers

24 are in a marketing area or areas located in

25 one or more States that require handlers
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1 to pay minimum prices for raw milk pur2 chases.

3 ‘‘(N) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN MILK HANDLERS.—

4 Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, no

5 handler with distribution of Class I milk products in the

6 marketing area described in Order No. 131 shall be ex7 empt during any month from any minimum price require8 ment established by the Secretary under this subsection

9 if the total distribution of Class I products during the pre10 ceding month of any such handler’s own farm production

11 exceeds 3,000,000 pounds.

12 ‘‘(O) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION REGARDING PRO13 DUCER-HANDLERS.—Subparagraphs (M) and (N) shall

14 not be construed as affecting, expanding, or contracting

15 the treatment of producer-handlers under this subsection

16 except as provided in such subparagraphs.’’.

17 (b) EXCLUSION OF NEVADA FROM FEDERAL MILK

18 MARKETING ORDERS.—Section 8c(11) of the Agriculture

19 Adjustment Act (7 U.S.C. 608c(11)), reenacted with

20 amendments by the Agriculture Marketing Agreement Act

21 of 1937, is amended—

22 (1) in subparagraph (C), by striking the last

23 sentence; and

24 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub25 paragraph:
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1 ‘‘(D) In the case of milk and its products, no county

2 or other political subdivision of the State of Nevada shall

3 be within the marketing area definition of any order issued

4 under this section.’’.

5 (c) RECORDS AND FACILITY REQUIREMENTS.—Not6 withstanding any other provision of this section, or the

7 amendments made by this section, a milk handler (includ8 ing a producer-handler or a producer operating as a han9 dler) that is subject to regulation under this section or

10 an amendment made by this section shall comply with the

11 requirements of section 1000.27 of title 7, Code of Federal

12 Regulations, or a successor regulation, relating to handler

13 responsibility for records or facilities.

14 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE AND IMPLEMENTATION.—The

15 amendments made by this section take effect on the first

16 day of the first month beginning more than 15 days after

17 the date of the enactment of this Act. To accomplish the

18 expedited implementation of these amendments, effective

19 on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary

20 of Agriculture shall include in the pool distributing plant

21 provisions of each Federal milk marketing order issued

22 under subparagraph (B) of section 8c(5) of the Agri23 culture Adjustment Act (7 U.S.C. 608c(5)), reenacted

24 with amendments by the Agriculture Marketing Agree25 ment Act of 1937, a provision that a handler described
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1 in subparagraph (M) of such section, as added by sub2 section (a) of this section, will be fully regulated by the

3 order in which the handler’s distributing plant is located.

4 These amendments shall not be subject to a referendum

5 under section 8c(19) of such Act (7 U.S.C. 608c(19)).

Passed the Senate December 16, 2005.

Attest:

Secretary.
109TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 2120

AN ACT

To ensure regulatory equity between and among all

areas, and for other purposes.milk marketing areas from federally regulatedareas and into certain non-federally regulatedfluid milk in federally regulated milk marketingdairy farmers and handlers for sales of packaged