§7251 Milk Price Support Program

Summary

The Secretary of Agriculture must support milk prices in the 48 contiguous States by buying cheese, butter, and nonfat dry milk made from that milk. The support price for milk with 3.67 percent butterfat is set per hundredweight as follows: $10.35 for 1996; $10.20 for 1997; $10.05 for 1998; $9.90 for each year 1999 through 2001; and $9.90 for the period January 1 through May 31, 2002. The Secretary will set the purchase prices for butter, cheese, and nonfat dry milk the same for everyone selling to the Secretary, and those prices must be high enough so that an average plant can pay producers at least the supported milk price. The Secretary may divide the support between butter and nonfat dry milk to lower Commodity Credit Corporation costs or for other objectives, and may change those allocations no more than twice a year. The Secretary must tell the House and Senate Agriculture Committees within 10 days after making or changing an allocation. Producers who prove they did not increase marketings in 1995 or 1996 compared with the prior year must get a refund of the full reduction required under section 204(h)(2) of the Agricultural Act of 1949 (7 U.S.C. 1446e(h)(2)) as it existed before the change made by subsection (g), unless they already received such a refund for the same fiscal year before this section took effect. Those refunds are not treated as price support or payments under sections 3811 and 3821 of title 16. The Commodity Credit Corporation will run the program. The program is effective from the first day of the first month beginning after April 4, 1996, and ends on May 31, 2002; it terminates on May 31, 2002 and is considered expired despite section 907 of title 2.