Bill > S670

This bill, known as the Dairy Pricing Reform Act of 2013, aims to improve federal dairy programs by establishing a new pre-hearing procedure for determining alternative formulas for Class III milk product pricing. The Secretary of Agriculture (referred to as "Secretary") will first issue a request for preliminary proposals for new pricing formulas, which may include competitive pay price formulas. These proposals will then be reviewed at a public information session. Following this session, the Secretary will decide whether to conduct a formal hearing to consider these proposals, and if not, must report the reasons for this decision to Congress. Additionally, the bill mandates that the Secretary conduct hearings to analyze the implications of shifting from a four-class to a two-class milk product system, explore ways to improve price discovery for better risk management by producers, and assess the transparency of a potential two-class competitive pay pricing system compared to the existing one.