Senator Rod Grams (R-Minn.) and Citizens Against Government Waste Cordially Invite You to a Policy Briefing:

Included as a provision of the 1996 Farm Bill, dairy farmers in six New England states (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts) were allowed to form an OPEC-style cartel, the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact, to fix the wholesale price of milk.  In the first three weeks after the compact took effect on July 1, the retail price of milk increased by 20 cents a gallon in the region.  Citizens Against Government Waste estimates that the compact will cost New England citizens at least $70 million per year in higher prices for milk and other dairy products.

The compact commission has already initiated a rule-making process to set prices  even higher in 1998, and other states are considering either joining the Northeast Compact or creating their own regional dairy cartels.

Sen. Rod Grams (R-Minn.), who introduced bipartisan legislation to repeal authority for the Northeast Dairy Compact, is joining CAGW in sponsoring this important policy briefing on the issue.  Legal experts and policy analysts will explore the Northeast Compact’s precedent-setting threat to interstate commerce, discuss the legal ramifications of the regional pricing of products and its economic consequences.