II 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2813 

To amend the Agricultural Adjustment Act to assist small cheese producers. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 10, 2018 

Mr. MURPHY (for himself and Mr. CASEY) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, 

and Forestry 

A BILL 

To amend the Agricultural Adjustment Act to assist small 

cheese producers. 

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 ‘‘Local Cheese Pro5 motion and Dairy Support Act of 2018’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ASSISTANCE FOR SMALL CHEESE PRODUCERS. 

7 The Agricultural Adjustment Act (7 U.S.C. 601 et 

8 seq.), reenacted with amendments by the Agricultural 

9 Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, is amended by adding 

10 at the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 24. ASSISTANCE FOR SMALL CHEESE PRODUCERS. 

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

3 ‘‘(1) ELIGIBLE INSTITUTION.—The term ‘eligi4 ble institution’ means— 

5 ‘‘(A) a land-grant college or university (as 

6 defined in section 1404 of the National Agricul7 tural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy 

8 Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3103)); 

9 ‘‘(B) a local office of the National Institute 

10 of Food and Agriculture or other regional office 

11 of the Department of Agriculture; 

12 ‘‘(C) a group of regional experts (as deter13 mined by the Secretary) that advises beginning 

14 farmers or ranchers (as defined under section 

15 343(a) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural 

16 Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1991(a))); or 

17 ‘‘(D) a nonprofit organization. 

18 ‘‘(2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 

19 the Secretary of Agriculture. 

20 ‘‘(3) SMALL CHEESE PRODUCER.—The term 

21 ‘small cheese producer’ has the meaning given the 

22 term by the Secretary. 

23 ‘‘(b) GRANT PROGRAM.— 

24 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall estab25 lish a program under which the Secretary shall make 


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1 competitive grants to, as determined by the Sec2 retary— 

3 ‘‘(A) eligible small cheese producers; and 

4 ‘‘(B) cooperative groups of small cheese 

5 producers. 

6 ‘‘(2) PREFERENCE.—In making grants under 

7 this subsection, the Secretary shall give preference 

8 to small cheese producers that use locally or region9 ally sourced product to produce cheese. 

10 ‘‘(3) USE OF FUNDS.—The recipient of a grant 

11 under this subsection may use grant funds— 

12 ‘‘(A) to purchase equipment or renovate 

13 and make repairs to production facilities; 

14 ‘‘(B) to develop a business plan or perform 

15 a feasibility study to grow the business of the 

16 small cheese producer; 

17 ‘‘(C) to promote and market cheese; 

18 ‘‘(D) to participate in accounting and fi19 nancial literacy education and training or pur20 chase necessary software; 

21 ‘‘(E) to upgrade facilities to meet food 

22 safety standards; 

23 ‘‘(F) to participate in food safety training; 

24 and 


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1 ‘‘(G) to participate in relevant job training, 

2 such as training in— 

3 ‘‘(i) cheese-making quality; or 

4 ‘‘(ii) the production of a variety of 

5 cheese that the recipient has not produced 

6 before. 

7 ‘‘(c) CHEESE PRODUCTION EDUCATION AND PRO8 MOTION PILOT PROJECT.— 

9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall not use 

10 more than 10 percent of the funds made available to 

11 carry out this section to establish at one or more eli12 gible institutions a pilot project that will— 

13 ‘‘(A) develop, or support an existing, re14 gional cheese-making resource center with the 

15 technical assistance and electronic resource ca16 pabilities to provide small cheese producers with 

17 financial, marketing, food safety, and produc18 tion assistance; 

19 ‘‘(B) support a group of experienced cheese 

20 producers or subject matter experts (as deter21 mined by the Secretary) to advise beginning 

22 cheese producers; and 

23 ‘‘(C) establish, or grow an existing, na24 tional cheese-making resource center to act as 


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1 a clearinghouse for best practices applicable to 

2 small cheese producers. 

3 ‘‘(2) REQUIREMENTS.—To be eligible to receive 

4 funding to establish a pilot project described in 

5 paragraph (1), an eligible institution shall dem6 onstrate to the Secretary— 

7 ‘‘(A) the capacity and technical expertise 

8 to provide the services described in that para9 graph; 

10 ‘‘(B) the support of the eligible institution 

11 in the agricultural community; and 

12 ‘‘(C) the availability of resources (in cash 

13 or in kind) of definite value to achieve the goal 

14 and sustain the mission of the pilot project. 

15 ‘‘(d) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

16 is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

17 $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2019 through 2023, 

18 to remain available until expended.’’. 

Æ 


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