Wisconsin dairy farmers received welcome news Thursday as the U.S. Senate approved the continuation of a federal "safety net" program which provides financial assistance when milk prices dip below a set level.

The measure gives hope to farmers that the Milk Income Loss Contract [MILC] program, which expired at the end of September, will receive two more years of life through the year-end budget bill.

"[T]he Senate has taken a very important step toward delivering much needed relief to family dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other states," U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., said in a release.

Kohl helped pioneer the program, which was incepted in the 2002 Farm Bill, and has paid $414 million to dairy producers in Wisconsin since it began.

After the Senate failed to include the MILC program in the 2006 Agricultural Appropriations bill, many dairy producers were left questioning whether the government would take other measures to continue the program.

"The very fact that the Senate extended the program is an indication that our [senators] from here in Wisconsin really care about the dairy industry," state Rep. and former farmer Barbara Gronemus, D-Whitehall, said.

MILC compensates milk producers when domestic milk prices fall below a certain price, or target level — which has happened infrequently in the past two years, and provides farmers with a sense of security in case milk prices plummet.

In 2002 and 2003, MILC helped farmers through a difficult period of low milk prices, allowing many of them to continue farming; without the program, some would have been forced to shut down.

The program was not restored to its initial state, Wisconsin Farm Bureau President Bill Bruins said however.

In the past, MILC paid farmers nearly 46 percent of the difference between the target level and the actual level of milk prices, but that amount dropped almost 10 percent, Bruins noted.

Gronemus expressed disappointment in President George W. Bush, who spoke in support of the program when campaigning in Wisconsin for the 2004 presidential election. Gronemus said Bush has done little since then to back the program.

"That doesn't surprise me," Gronemus added.

The budget bill will likely reach the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives sometime this week; if the House approves the bill, a joint Senate-House conference will then be held to settle differences between the legislation passed by the Senate and House.

Bruins said he is concerned whether the House will pass the plan for the MILC extension, adding a bipartisan effort is necessary to obtain the continuation.

"We still do have some battles to fight — it has not been included in the House reconciliation bill," Bruins said. "The two committees will get together and have to hammer out the differences, so we're going to make an all-out effort to maintain the extension."

Kohl echoed these concerns, stating though the Senate has twice voted to extend the program, the House has "blocked" the efforts both times.

"I hope that the House will vote to extend this important program without delay and without any adverse adjustments," he said in the release.