[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 162 (Tuesday, November 16, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H12078]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             TEAR DOWN THE WALL OF MILK MARKETING NONSENSE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Madam Speaker, every morning back in Minnesota, on 
about 8,300 farms, the lights go on between 4:30 and 5 o'clock in the 
morning. On those 8,300 dairy farms, people get up; the farmers get up 
to go out and milk their cows. Now, if there was a group of people in 
America that works harder than our dairy farmers, I do not know who 
they are.
  Ever since 1937, the dairy farmers in the Upper Midwest have labored 
under the yoke of the milk marketing order system. It is a convoluted, 
complicated, and unfair system whereby the price that the dairy farmers 
receive for their milk is priced based on how far they are away from 
Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It makes absolutely no economic sense. Now, it 
may have made sense back in 1937 before the refrigeration we have 
today, before the interstate highway system that we have today; but it 
makes no sense today.
  In fact, Justice Scalia described the system as Byzantine. Ever since 
about 1938, those of us who represented the good dairy farmers in the 
Upper Midwest have been trying to get this system reformed. We have 
asked for just a modest amount of reform.
  Finally, in the last farm bill, we made an agreement that we would 
request that the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Glickman, would come 
back with a proposal to level the playing field at least a little bit 
in this milk marketing order system so that dairy farmers in the Upper 
Midwest would not be punished as much just because their dairy farms 
are located closer to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, than dairy farms in other 
parts of the country.
  Finally, the Secretary of Agriculture came back with a plan, a modest 
plan. It was not strong enough for many of us. We wanted more reform 
than the Secretary brought forward. But in the sense of compromise, we 
were willing to live with that. But, unfortunately, some of our 
colleagues from the rest of the parts of the country said no, no, no, 
we cannot even have that modest amount of reform.
  Well, Madam Speaker, I want to share with my colleagues some excerpts 
of an article that was written back in about 1985 about a U.S. 
Representative from the State of Texas who was a former economics 
professor. He is the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey). The title of the 
article is ``Moscow on the Mississippi; America's Soviet-style Farm 
Policy.'' Let me just read some excerpts from this article.
  He starts off by saying, ``Even as perestroika comes to the Communist 
world, our own Federal farm programs remain as American monuments to 
the folly of central planning. If we have reached the end of history 
with the vindication of free economy, the USDA has not yet heard the 
word.
  ``Fifty years ago, when the Roosevelt administration announced 
certain `temporary emergency measures,' farm programs were highly 
controversial.'' Even Henry Wallace, the Secretary of Agriculture ``who 
conceived the idea, remarked, `I hope we shall never have to resort to 
it again.' The USDA has been resorting to it ever since.
  ``Under the current farm law passed in 1985,'' and this was in 1986, 
I believe, the article was written, passed in 1985, ``the Department of 
Agriculture has paid dairy farmers to kill 1.6 million cows.''
  I go on. He says, ``Under the dairy program, local dairy cooperatives 
are allowed to form government-protected monopolies. Because there is 
no competition, people have no choice but to buy the milk at higher 
prices, which is a good arrangement for the big cooperatives, but a bad 
arrangement for parents who buy milk for their children. The resulting 
dairy surpluses have been reduced by government's paying dairy 
farmers'' large amounts ``to slaughter or export their cows and leave 
dairy farming for'' at least ``5 years.''
  ``Like any central planning effort, whether in the Soviet Union or 
the American Corn Belt, all supply-control policies are riddled with 
irrationalities and unintended consequences. Even though the USDA has 
one bureaucrat for every six full-time farmers, fine-tuning the farm 
economy is a difficult task.''
  I go on and I quote from the end of this column where he says, 
``Repeal all marketing orders. Current law prohibits the Office of 
Management and Budget from even studying them. Marketing orders should 
be repealed.
  ``Terminate the dairy program.''
  Well, Madam Speaker, I say to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) 
and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert), a wall of protectionism 
cannot stand against free markets. Milk marketing orders cannot be 
explained, let alone defended. Compacts are trade barriers. Trade 
barriers are walls.
  I say to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) and the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Hastert), if they mean what they say about perestroika 
and open markets, then come here to the well of this House and stop the 
milk marketing nonsense. Tear down this wall.

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