Title 7AgricultureRelease 119-73

§6401 Findings and declaration of policy

Title 7 › Chapter CHAPTER 93— - PROCESSOR-FUNDED MILK PROMOTION PROGRAM › § 6401

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Authorizes a national program to promote, research, and inform the public about fluid milk products. It says milk is a basic food and a key source of nutrients like calcium. Milk must be easy to get and sold well so people stay nourished. The dairy industry matters to the U.S. economy because thousands of producers supply milk that millions of people drink. Processing and marketing fluid milk help keep prices for raw milk steady. Keeping and growing markets for fluid milk is important for producers, processors, and the whole economy. The program must be run cooperatively and paid for by assessments on fluid milk processors. It must promote all fluid milk products, not boost any single processor or replace private brand ads. It covers milk sold across state lines and recognizes that local milk can still affect interstate trade. This is a national government effort that authorizes funding for programs that promote those government objectives.

Full Legal Text

Title 7, §6401

Agriculture — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Congress finds that—
(1)fluid milk products are basic foods and are a primary source of required nutrients such as calcium, and otherwise are a valuable part of the human diet;
(2)fluid milk products must be readily available and marketed efficiently to ensure that the people of the United States receive adequate nourishment;
(3)the dairy industry plays a significant role in the economy of the United States, in that milk is produced by thousands of milk producers and dairy products (including fluid milk products) are consumed every day by millions of people in the United States;
(4)the processing of milk into fluid milk products and the marketing of such products are important to the dairy industry because the fluid milk segment of the dairy market contributes substantially to ensuring that the prices paid to milk producers for raw milk are stable and adequate to maintain the overall strength of the dairy industry;
(5)the maintenance and expansion of markets for fluid milk products are vital to the Nation’s fluid milk processors and milk producers, as well as to the general economy of the United States;
(6)the congressional purpose underlying this chapter is to maintain and expand markets for fluid milk products, not to maintain or expand any processor’s share of those markets and that the chapter does not prohibit or restrict individual advertising or promotion of fluid milk products since the programs created and funded by this chapter are not extended to replace individual advertising and promotion efforts;
(7)the cooperative development, financing, and implementation of a coordinated program of advertising and promotion of fluid milk products is necessary to maintain and expand markets for fluid milk products;
(8)it is appropriate to finance the cooperative program described in paragraph (6) 11 So in original. Probably should be paragraph “(7)”. with self-help assessments paid by the fluid milk processors; and
(9)fluid milk products move in interstate and foreign commerce, and fluid milk products that do not move in such channels of commerce directly burden or affect interstate commerce in fluid milk products.
(b)It is declared to be the policy of Congress that it is in the public interest to authorize the establishment, through the exercise of powers provided in this chapter, of an orderly procedure for developing, financing, through adequate assessments on fluid milk products produced in the United States and carrying out an effective, continuous, and coordinated program of promotion, research, and consumer information designed to strengthen the position of the dairy industry in the marketplace and maintain and expand domestic and foreign markets and uses for fluid milk products, the purpose of which is not to compete with or replace individual advertising or promotion efforts designed to promote individual brand name or trade name fluid milk products, but rather to maintain and expand the markets for all fluid milk products, with the goal and purpose of this chapter being a national governmental goal that authorizes and funds programs that result in government speech promoting government objectives.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1996—Subsec. (a)(6) to (9). Pub. L. 104–127, § 146(a), added par. (6) and redesignated former pars. (6) to (8) as (7) to (9), respectively. Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 104–127, § 146(b), amended heading and text of subsec. (b) generally. Text read as follows: “It is declared to be the policy of Congress that it is in the public interest to authorize the establishment, through the exercise of the powers provided in this chapter, of an orderly procedure for developing, financing (through adequate assessments on fluid milk products produced in the United States) and carrying out an effective and coordinated program of advertising designed to strengthen the position of the dairy industry in the marketplace and to maintain and expand markets and uses for fluid milk products produced in the United States. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to provide for the control of production or otherwise limit the right of individual milk producers to produce milk.”

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Short Title

of 1993 Amendment Pub. L. 103–72, § 1, Aug. 11, 1993, 107 Stat. 717, provided that: “This Act [amending section 6402 and 6409 of this title] may be cited as the ‘Fluid Milk Promotion

Amendments

Act of 1993’.”

Short Title

Pub. L. 101–624, title XIX, § 1999A, Nov. 28, 1990, 104 Stat. 3914, provided that: “This subtitle [subtitle H (§§ 1999A—1999R) of title XIX of Pub. L. 101–624, enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Fluid Milk Promotion Act of 1990’.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

7 U.S.C. § 6401

Title 7Agriculture

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73