[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H10175]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 END BUSINESS AS USUAL ON DAIRY PRICES

  (Mr. OBEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, if we can cut through the partisan bloviating 
we have just heard for a few minutes, I would like to note something 
else.
  I have voted against every farm bill that has been in front of this 
House for the last 10 years because those bills guaranteed that the 
dairy farmers from the upper Midwest would receive significantly lower 
prices than farmers in other regions of the country. This week a 
Federal court struck down those milk marketing orders as being 
arbitrary and capricious. That court is right. They ordered the USDA to 
no longer enforce those milk marketing orders.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time to end business as usual on this issue. 
Congress and the USDA and major dairy organizations need to recognize 
that major changes must be made in the milk marketing order system. 
Until those changes are made, the responsible thing to do is to vote 
against any other farm legislation that comes to this floor.

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