Sponsored by:
Senator STEVEN V. OROHO
District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)
Senator STEPHEN M. SWEENEY
District 3 (Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem)
SYNOPSIS
Directs Department of Agriculture to pay annual premiums for the federal Dairy Margin Coverage Program to enrolled dairy farmers.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning reimbursement of certain premiums to dairy farmers and supplementing Title 4 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. The Department of Agriculture shall disburse annually to each enrolled dairy farmer in the State the amount of the annual premium paid by the enrolled dairy farmer for coverage under the federal Dairy Margin Coverage Program. The department, pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), shall adopt rules and regulations establishing procedures for the disbursement of funds to reimburse each enrolled dairy farmer in the State the amount the enrolled dairy farmer has paid for the annual premium for the federal Dairy Margin Coverage Program.
b. The Department of Agriculture shall include in its annual budget request to the Governor an amount equal to the moneys necessary to pay the annual premiums for the federal Dairy Margin Coverage Program for all enrolled dairy farmers in the State. The Legislature shall appropriate the necessary funds to the department for this purpose.
c. As used in this section:
Department means the Department of Agriculture.
Enrolled dairy farmer means a dairy farmer enrolled in the federal Dairy Margin Coverage Program.
Federal Dairy Margin Coverage Program means the federal Dairy Margin Coverage Program that replaced the former federal Margin Protection Program for Dairy Producers pursuant to the federal Agricultural Act of 2018.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill directs the Department of Agriculture to reimburse annually each enrolled dairy farmer in the State the amount of the annual premium paid by that farmer for coverage under the federal Dairy Margin Coverage Program. The bill requires the department to adopt rules and regulations to establish procedures to reimburse enrolled dairy farmers the amount of the annual premium.
The bill would also require the department to include in its annual budget request to the Governor an amount equal to the moneys necessary to pay the annual premiums for the federal Dairy Margin Coverage Program for all enrolled dairy farmers in the State.
The federal Agricultural Act of 2018 (commonly referred to as the 2018 Farm Bill) replaced the former federal Margin Protection Program for Dairy Producers (MPP-Dairy) with the Dairy Margin Coverage program (DMC). The DMC is a voluntary risk management program for dairy producers that makes payments when the national average income-over-feed-cost margin falls below a farmer selected coverage level. The program provides catastrophic coverage and various levels of buy-up coverage. Farmers register for the DMC between June and December of a given year. In 2019, 23 dairy farmers in New Jersey applied to participate in the program.