The measure is a request bill from the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.
Every three years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reviews the department's food safety division. For the past two regular reviews, Scott Yates, director of food safety at the department, said the federal agency recommended Oklahoma align with federal rules regulating milk from all hoofed animals.
"So if this language isn't changed, FDA would have the authority, and to be honest I don't know what the timeline would be, but they would have the authority to take away the state's Grade A status," Yates said.
This means no milk or milk products could leave the state, affecting dairies, dairy processors or farms in out-of-state co-ops. There were 298 dairies in Oklahoma in 2022, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Census of Agriculture.
The state legislators are hoping to wrap up the session soon, but the bill must clear its final chamber before reaching the governor's desk. It passed the House of Representatives in a 58-31 vote and the Senate in a 25-20 vote.
Although it has already cleared both legislative bodies once, senators have to approve it again because language was changed. Originally, SB2071 included a fee increase from 1 cent to 2 cents per hundred gallons of milk to allow the food safety program to pay for itself.
Yearly total expenses, including milk sampling, salaries to pay employees and travel is $400,000, Yates said. But with the current 1-cent fee, revenue is about $250,000.
Because more money is spent than is brought in, he said the department is subsidizing the program with other ODAFF funds. Without the fee increase, that will continue.
While the fee increase is no longer in the bill, it was unpopular with some lawmakers. One of the bill's authors, Sen. Casey Murdock, R-Felt, said in a February committee meeting that the fee's update is about food safety, would still keep Oklahoma's cost lower than other states, including Kansas and Texas and allow the program to carry its own weight.
The measure's other author, Rep. Carl Newton, R-Cherokee, said in an April committee meeting that this bill would mainly impact large dairies like Braum's and Hiland Dairy. He said right now, the fee for a 50,000-pound milk tanker is about $5, and with the fee increase, it would be about $10.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
