Organization for Competitive Markets officials say that since 2012, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has failed to submit federally mandated annual reports to Congress on dairy checkoff program activities. OCM Executive Director Joe Maxwell says that failure has led to a lack of transparency and is an abuse of checkoff dollars.

He says failure to file these reports is a violation of the law.

Maxwell says OCM wants Congress to step in and provide proper oversight.

Maxwell says it’s ironic this occurred while Tom Vilsack was Secretary of Agriculture as he is now working for the U.S. Dairy Export Council. Under the dairy checkoff producers pay 15 cents per hundred pounds of milk while dairy importers pay 7.5 cents.