[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 22, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H5564]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page H5564]]



                       FAIRNESS TO DAIRY FARMERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Johnson] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to also address 
an issue of agriculture, one that I think is of utmost importance to 
dairy farmers not only in northeast Wisconsin where I come from but all 
across this country, an agriculture issue that we are familiar with 
from some innovative television and prints ads that promote milk and 
dairy products, not only from Wisconsin but across this great land of 
ours.
  One ad campaign asks, Got milk? Well, we have got milk in Wisconsin. 
And the question is, have we got fairness? It is another issue.
  Right now the dairy farmers in northeast Wisconsin, indeed across the 
country, every one of them hard working farm families, pay 15 cents for 
every 100 pounds of milk that they sell. It goes into a fund. It 
promotes and advertises milk and dairy products. All of these ads are a 
great boost for dairy products in general. The program is helping dairy 
farmers everywhere, everywhere sell their milk.
  However, there are some dairy producers who benefit from these ads 
but they do not pay into this promotion fund. They are not farmers from 
my home district in Wisconsin. They are not farmers in the Northeast or 
in California.
  They are foreign dairy producers, places like Australia and New 
Zealand, and they in fact reap the rewards of dairy promotion. I think 
dairy farmers think it is time we shared the cost with all dairy 
farmers.
  I have introduced a bill, Mr. Speaker, as a matter of fact, my first 
bill to try and level the playing field between American dairy farmers 
and foreign dairy producers when it comes to promotion, which benefits 
everybody who looks to advertise their product. It is the Dairy 
Promotion Fairness Act. I urge my colleagues to sign onto the measure 
and support it in this Congress.
  I think this issue of fairness goes beyond the fact that dairy 
importers are not paying the same fees as dairy farmers. The importers 
of other commodities, beef, pork, and cotton, are currently paying into 
their respective promotion programs, yet dairy importers in America do 
not.
  Also our dairy farmers are required to pay into dairy promotion 
programs in other countries where we do sell our milk. We are 
exporters. But those agreements unfortunately at this point are not 
reciprocal.
  This past weekend I had a chance to meet with Reuel Robertson, a 
dairy producer from Oneida, Wisconsin. He pays as much as $450 a month 
from his monthly dairy check into a dairy promotion fund to help the 
industry sell, in effect, milk, cheese, ice cream and other products to 
Americans. It is for Reuel Robertson and for farmers everywhere, not 
just in northeast Wisconsin, but everywhere in this land that I am 
working to require foreign dairy producers to pay for dairy promotion. 
We will not be establishing a new program. We are already marketing 
milk.

                              {time}  2345

  We will be sharing the cost with every producer that sells dairy 
products in this country. Assessing importers, we will add 
approximately $10 million to the resources that pay for milk promotion. 
That is $10 million that promotes dairy products all across the 
country. It is no added extra revenue to dairy farmers in this country, 
and yet it is added revenue to help promote a product that we do best. 
Dairy products.
  Mr. Speaker, when we ask the question, got milk? The answer should be 
yes. Got fairness? Unfortunately, for now, the answer is no, but I hope 
we can change that.

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