Title: A bill to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to provide emergency payments to dairy producers.
Policy area: Agriculture and Food

Summary:
This bill requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to issue emergency payments to dairy producers. USDA must develop criteria for the payments that give priority to producers who are: (1) located in a state with a high cost of dairy production compared to other states, and (2) on a farm with a high cost of dairy production based on the size of the farm.
The emergency payments provided under this bill must be at least $10,000 but no greater than $20,000 per dairy operation.
USDA must use $556 million in Commodity Credit Corporation funds to carry out this bill. The bill designates the spending as an emergency requirement pursuant to the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2010 and the FY2018 congressional budget resolution. (This exempts the spending from various budget enforcement rules.)

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3586 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3586

To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to provide emergency payments to 
                            dairy producers.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 11, 2018

  Mr. Sanders introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to provide emergency payments to 
                            dairy producers.

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

SECTION 1. EMERGENCY PAYMENTS.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture (referred to in this Act as 
the ``Secretary'') shall issue emergency payments to dairy producers 
according to criteria developed by the Secretary under subsection (b).
    (b) Criteria.--
            (1) In general.--The Secretary shall develop criteria for 
        the issuance of emergency payments under subsection (a).
            (2) Priority.--In developing criteria under paragraph (1), 
        the Secretary shall--
                    (A) give priority to a dairy producer--
                            (i) located in a State with a high cost of 
                        dairy production compared to other States; or
                            (ii) on a farm with a high cost of dairy 
                        production based on the size of the farm, as 
                        determined by the Secretary; and
                    (B) in carrying out subparagraph (A), use the most 
                current estimates of the Economic Research Service for 
                the cost of milk production by State and nationwide.
    (c) Payment Limitation.--An emergency payment under subsection (a) 
shall be not less than $10,000 but not greater than $20,000 per dairy 
operation.
    (d) Funding.--Of the funds of the Commodity Credit Corporation, the 
Secretary shall use to carry out this section $556,000,000 for fiscal 
year 2019, to remain available until expended.

SEC. 2. EMERGENCY DESIGNATION.

    (a) Statutory PAYGO.--This Act is designated as an emergency 
requirement pursuant to section 4(g) of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act 
of 2010 (2 U.S.C. 933(g)).
    (b) Senate Designation.--In the Senate, this Act is designated as 
an emergency requirement pursuant to section 4112(a) of H. Con. Res. 71 
(115th Congress), the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal 
year 2018.
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