WASHINGTON – On Capitol Hill these days, milk is not a matter of smiling celebrities sporting milk mustaches.

Dairy supporters are pressing hard to renew and expand a government milk price control program in the Northeast and create a new one in the South.

They face vigorous opposition from the dairy-rich Midwest, where the belief is that compacts are unfair to other dairy farmers and hurt consumers by raising prices.

Supporters contend the price supports are needed to protect dairy farmers from broad fluctuations in milk prices that sometimes leave them struggling to make ends meet.

Dairy compacts guarantee farmers wholesale prices for their milk above federal minimums.

The bill introduced Wednesday by lead sponsors Reps. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., and Bob Etheridge, R-N.C., would add five states to the Northeast Compact – New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.

The new compact in the South would be made up of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia.

Compact opponents, led by Sessions, sent a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert outlining their concerns.

The letter, signed by 101 members from both parties, said the Northeast compact “has held milk prices artificially high by blocking the entry of lower-priced competitive milk into that region.”

Compact supporters pointed to a new study from the University of Connecticut, which did not dispute that prices increased since the compact took effect in 1997 – rising from an average of $2.49 per gallon to $2.78 per gallon in 2000.

But it determined that the compact accounted for only 4.5 cents of that 29 cent increase. Supermarkets and dairy processors accounted for 11 cents of the increase, the study found.