Letter to Sonny Perdue, Secretary of the Dept. of Agriculture - Blunt, Hawley Join Colleagues in Urging USDA to Provide Immediate Assistance to Cattle Producers

Letter

Dear Secretary Perdue:

Thank you for your ongoing efforts to assist farmers as they face unique challenges on account
of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As the bipartisan co-chairs of the
Congressional Dairy Farmer Caucus and members who represent dairy farmers, we urge the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) to do all it can to help dairy farmers weather this time of
incredible hardship.

Dairy farms are the backbone of rural economies across the country. Dairy farmers continue to
put themselves at risk by working around the clock to provide products to consumers during this
difficult time. However, the dairy industry is now facing unprecedented and extensive economic
damage due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The foodservice market has collapsed overnight due to
closures of schools and restaurants, and export disruptions are harming milk powder demand.
The decrease in demand for finished products has caused processing plants to curtail or cease
operations and cancel fluid milk orders. Farmers are being forced to dump milk and milk prices
are plummeting. Dairy farmers have already seen losses of more than $5.7 billion due to this
crisis.

We ask that you use as many tools as possible, as quickly as possible, to address this crisis in the
dairy industry. These tools could include but are not limited to paying producers to reduce
production, compensate producers for milk that must be dumped, provide capital for processors
to expand their capacity and increase their inventory, purchase dairy products for food banks,
reopen the Dairy Margin Coverage Program and make the sign up retroactive, and work to
increase international food aid.

Dairy farmers need support immediately. We urge you to use your authority to provide support
directly to producers. The CARES Act provides the USDA with $9.5 billion to assist producers
and specifically cites dairy in the statutory language. We ask that you take immediate action to
support this critical industry.

Thank you for your consideration of our requests. We look forward to continuing to work with
you over the coming weeks and months on behalf of dairy farmers.

Sincerely,