II 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2555 

To amend the Agricultural Act of 2014 to establish the Dairy Farm 

Sustainability Price Loss Coverage Program, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 14, 2018 

Mrs. GILLIBRAND introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 

referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 

A BILL 

To amend the Agricultural Act of 2014 to establish the 

Dairy Farm Sustainability Price Loss Coverage Program, 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 ‘‘Dairy Farm Sustain5 ability Act of 2018’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DAIRY FARM SUSTAINABILITY PRICE LOSS COV7 ERAGE PROGRAM. 

8 Part I of subtitle D of title I of the Agricultural Act 

9 of 2014 is amended by inserting after section 1408 (7 

10 U.S.C. 9058) the following: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 1408A. DAIRY FARM SUSTAINABILITY PRICE LOSS 

2 COVERAGE PROGRAM. 

3 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

4 ‘‘(1) CONTRACTING DAIRY OPERATION.—The 

5 term ‘contracting dairy operation’ means a partici6 pating dairy operation that enters into a contract 

7 under subsection (b)(1). 

8 ‘‘(2) MINIMUM MILK PRICE.—The term ‘min9 imum milk price’ means $23.34 per hundredweight 

10 of milk, as adjusted by the Secretary for each half 

11 of each calendar year to reflect changes in the Con12 sumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers pub13 lished by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the De14 partment of Labor. 

15 ‘‘(3) PAYMENT QUANTITY.—The term ‘payment 

16 quantity’ means the payment quantity established 

17 for a contracting dairy operation under subsection 

18 (c)(3). 

19 ‘‘(b) CONTRACTS.— 

20 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall offer to 

21 enter into a contract with a participating dairy oper22 ation under which the participating dairy operation 

23 may receive payments under subsection (c). 

24 ‘‘(2) SIGNUP.—The Secretary shall offer to 

25 enter into contracts under paragraph (1) during the 

26 period that a dairy operation may register to particiVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:19 Mar 21, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2555.IS S2555

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1 pate in the margin protection program established 

2 under section 1404(b). 

3 ‘‘(3) DURATION OF CONTRACTS.— 

4 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in 

5 subparagraph (B), a contract entered into 

6 under paragraph (1) shall cover milk marketed 

7 by the contracting dairy operation during the 

8 period beginning on the first day of the month 

9 during which the contract is entered into and 

10 ending on December 31, 2023. 

11 ‘‘(B) VIOLATIONS.—If a contracting dairy 

12 operation violates a contract entered into under 

13 paragraph (1), the Secretary may— 

14 ‘‘(i) terminate the contract and allow 

15 the contracting dairy operation to retain 

16 any payments received under the contract; 

17 or 

18 ‘‘(ii) allow the contract to remain in 

19 effect and require the contracting dairy op20 eration to repay a portion of the payments 

21 received under the contract, based on the 

22 severity of the violation. 

23 ‘‘(c) PAYMENTS.— 

24 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall provide 

25 to a contracting dairy operation a payment for a 


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1 month under this subsection and not under the mar2 gin protection program if the amount of the pay3 ment to the contracting dairy operation for that 

4 month under this section is greater than the amount 

5 that the contracting dairy operation would receive 

6 under the margin protection program. 

7 ‘‘(2) AMOUNT.—The amount of a payment to a 

8 contracting dairy operation under this subsection 

9 shall be equal to the product obtained by multi10 plying, as determined by the Secretary— 

11 ‘‘(A) the payment quantity during the ap12 plicable month; 

13 ‘‘(B) the difference obtained by sub14 tracting— 

15 ‘‘(i) the minimum milk price; and 

16 ‘‘(ii) the ‘All Milk’ price per hundred17 weight under the applicable Federal milk 

18 marketing order; and 

19 ‘‘(C) 45 percent. 

20 ‘‘(3) PAYMENT QUANTITY.— 

21 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara22 graph (B), the payment quantity for a con23 tracting dairy operation for a month shall be 

24 equal to the hundredweight of milk marketed by 


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1 the contracting dairy operation during the 

2 month. 

3 ‘‘(B) LIMITATION.—The payment quantity 

4 described in subparagraph (A) for any month 

5 for a contracting dairy operation shall not ex6 ceed 4,166 hundredweight of milk. 

7 ‘‘(4) TIMING OF PAYMENTS.—The Secretary 

8 shall make a payment to a contracting dairy oper9 ation under this subsection not later than 60 days 

10 after the last day of the month for which the pay11 ment is made.’’. 

12 SEC. 3. EXTENSION OF MARGIN PROTECTION PROGRAM 

13 FOR DAIRY PRODUCERS. 

14 Section 1409 of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (7 

15 U.S.C. 9059) is amended by striking ‘‘2018’’ and insert16 ing ‘‘2023’’. 

Æ 


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