WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman David G. Valadao (CA-22) introduced the Emergency Assistance for Dairy Producers Act. This legislation aims to ensure dairy producers impacted by California’s historic storms this year can qualify for Commodity Credit Corporation emergency assistance funds.

“This year’s storms and flooding had a severe impact on parts of the Central Valley. Ensuring our communities have the resources needed to recover has continued to be one of my top priorities,” said Congressman Valadao. “Property damage, feed losses, and transportation costs from moving livestock during the flooding were devastating to Central Valley dairy farmers, but there are limited options for them to be reimbursed for these costs. The Emergency Assistance for Dairy Producers Act will ensure California’s dairy farmers can access available federal dollars to help offset some of these losses.”

“We commend Representative David Valadao for authoring the Emergency Assistance for Dairy Producers Act. California dairy farm families endured major challenges this year from storms that displaced families and cattle, damaged farms and feed supplies, and severely impacted crops being grown to feed the state’s dairy cows. Nobody understands these unique challenges better than Rep. Valadao, whose legislation points the way toward providing needed emergency resources to help California dairy producers recover from their losses,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO, National Milk Producers Federation.

"Milk Producers Council of California strongly supports and endorses the "Emergency Assistance for Dairy Producers Act." This legislation can't come soon enough for our producers who experienced catastrophic losses due to the historic flooding in the Tulare Lake Basin in 2023. Time is of the essence to get financial support to individual dairy farmers who have lost years of feed supplies due to flooding, and are buying corn, wheat, alfalfa and other total mixed ration (TMR) ingredients on the open market,” said Kevin Abernathy, General Manager, Milk Producers Council of California.

Background:

California’s agriculture industry was hit hard by this year’s historic storms, with the total cost of damage and losses still yet to be realized. Currently, there are limited avenues available to assist dairy producers impacted by natural disasters. The Emergency Assistance for Dairy Producers Act aims to address this gap by amending the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act to authorize the use of Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) funds for emergency assistance to dairy producers in the case of livestock relocation and feed crop losses due to natural disasters and ensures the Secretary of Agriculture has the proper explicit authorities to assist dairy producers using CCC funds.