I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4015 
To ensure regulatory equity between and among all dairy farmers and han-
dlers for sales of packaged fluid milk in federally regulated milk mar-
keting areas and into certain non-federally regulated milk marketing 
areas from federally regulated areas, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 7, 2005 
Mr. NUNES (for himself, Mr. DOOLITTLE, Mr. POMBO, Mr. BOEHNER, Mr. 
RENZI, Mr. PORTER, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, Mr. HERGER, Mr. GIB-
BONS, Mr. HAYWORTH, Mr. THOMAS, Mr. BACA, Mr. CARDOZA, Mr. 
COSTA, Mr. DANIEL E. LUNGREN of California, Mr. FILNER, Mr. FARR, 
Ms. WOOLSEY, Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California, Ms. HARMAN, Mrs. 
NAPOLITANO, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. HOLDEN, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. THOMP-
SON of California, Ms. BERKLEY, Mr. PASTOR, and Ms. MATSUI) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agri-
culture 
A BILL 
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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Milk Regulatory Eq-
uity Act of 2005’’. 
SEC. 2. MILK REGULATORY EQUITY. 
(a) MINIMUM MILK PRICES FOR HANDLERS; EXEMP-
TION.—Section 8c(5) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act 
(7 U.S.C. 608c(5)), reenacted with amendments by the 
Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, is amend-
ed by adding at the end the following new subparagraphs: 
‘‘(M) MINIMUM MILK PRICES FOR HANDLERS.— 
‘‘(i) APPLICATION
OF
MINIMUM
PRICE
RE-
QUIREMENTS.—Notwithstanding any other provision 
of this section, a milk handler described in clause 
(ii) shall be subject to all of the minimum and uni-
form price requirements of a Federal milk marketing 
order issued pursuant to this section applicable to 
the county in which the plant of the handler is lo-
cated, at Federal order class prices, if the handler 
has packaged fluid milk product route dispositions, 
or sales of packaged fluid milk products to other 
plants, in a marketing area located in a State that 
requires handlers to pay minimum prices for raw 
milk purchases. 
‘‘(ii) COVERED
MILK
HANDLERS.—Except as 
provided in clause (iv), clause (i) applies to a han-
dler of Class I milk products (including a producer- 
handler or producer operating as a handler) that— 
‘‘(I) operates a plant that is located within 
the boundaries of a Federal order milk mar-
keting area (as those boundaries are in effect as 
of the date of the enactment of this subpara-
graph); 
‘‘(II) has packaged fluid milk product 
route dispositions, or sales of packaged fluid 
milk products to other plants, in a milk mar-
keting area located in a State that requires 
handlers to pay minimum prices for raw milk 
purchases; and 
‘‘(III) is not otherwise obligated by a Fed-
eral milk marketing order, or a regulated milk 
pricing plan operated by a State, to pay min-
imum class prices for the raw milk that is used 
for such dispositions or sales. 
‘‘(iii) OBLIGATION
TO
PAY
MINIMUM
CLASS 
PRICES.—For purposes of clause (ii)(III), the Sec-
retary may not consider a handler of Class I milk 
products to be obligated by a Federal milk mar-
keting order to pay minimum class prices for raw 
milk unless the handler operates the plant as a fully
regulated fluid milk distributing plant under a Fed-
eral milk marketing order. 
‘‘(iv) CERTAIN HANDLERS EXEMPTED.—Clause 
(i) does not apply to— 
‘‘(I) a handler (otherwise described in 
clause (ii)) that operates a nonpool plant (as 
defined in section 1000.8(e) of title 7, Code of 
Federal Regulations, as in effect on the date of 
the enactment of this subparagraph); 
‘‘(II) a producer-handler (otherwise de-
scribed in clause (ii)) for any month during 
which the producer-handler has route disposi-
tions, and sales to other plants, of packaged 
fluid 
milk 
products 
equaling 
less 
than 
3,000,000 pounds of milk; or 
‘‘(III) a handler (otherwise described in 
clause (ii)) for any month during which— 
‘‘(aa) less than 25 percent of the total 
quantity of fluid milk products physically 
received at the plant of the handler (ex-
cluding concentrated milk received from 
another plant by agreement for other than 
Class I use) is disposed of as route disposi-
tion or is transferred in the form of pack-
aged fluid milk products to other plants; or
‘‘(bb) less than 25 percent in aggre-
gate of the route disposition or transfers 
are in a marketing area or areas located in 
one or more States that require handlers 
to pay minimum prices for raw milk pur-
chases. 
‘‘(N) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN MILK HANDLERS.— 
Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, no 
handler with distribution of Class I milk products in the 
marketing area described in Order No. 131 shall be ex-
empt during any month from any minimum price require-
ment established by the Secretary under this subsection 
if the total distribution of Class I products during the pre-
ceding month of any such handler’s own farm production 
exceeds 3,000,000 pounds.’’. 
(b) EXCLUSION OF NEVADA FROM FEDERAL MILK 
MARKETING ORDERS.—Section 8c(11) of the Agriculture 
Adjustment Act (7 U.S.C. 608c(11)), reenacted with 
amendments by the Agriculture Marketing Agreement Act 
of 1937, is amended— 
(1) in subparagraph (C), by striking the last 
sentence; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following new sub-
paragraph:
‘‘(D) In the case of milk and its products, no county 
or other political subdivision of the State of Nevada shall 
be within the marketing area definition of any order issued 
under this section.’’. 
(c) RECORDS AND FACILITY REQUIREMENTS.—Not-
withstanding any other provision of this section, or the 
amendments made by this section, a milk handler (includ-
ing a producer-handler or a producer operating as a han-
dler) that is subject to regulation under this section or 
an amendment made by this section shall comply with the 
requirements of section 1000.27 of title 7, Code of Federal 
Regulations, or a successor regulation, relating to handler 
responsibility for records or facilities. 
(d) EFFECTIVE DATE AND IMPLEMENTATION.—The 
amendments made by this section take effect on the first 
day of the first month beginning more than 15 days after 
the date of the enactment of this Act. To accomplish the 
expedited implementation of these amendments, effective 
on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 
of Agriculture shall include in the pool distributing plant 
provisions of each Federal milk marketing order issued 
under subparagraph (B) of section 8c(5) of the Agri-
culture Adjustment Act (7 U.S.C. 608c(5)), reenacted 
with amendments by the Agriculture Marketing Agree-
ment Act of 1937, a provision that a handler described
in subparagraph (M) of such section, as added by sub-
section (a) of this section, will be fully regulated by the 
order in which the handler’s distributing plant is located. 
These amendments shall not be subject to a referendum 
under section 8c(19) of such Act (7 U.S.C. 608c(19)). 
Æ