[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 13607]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



              COMMEMORATING THE SERVICE OF SANDRA K. HOGAN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. RICHARD W. POMBO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 18, 1999

  Mr. POMBO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and pay tribute 
to Ms. Sandra K. Hogan, Director of the Legislative and Regulatory 
Review Office of USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). Ms. Hogan 
will retire, July 3rd after 37 years of service to AMS. For 33 of those 
years, she has not only served 13 AMS Administrators, but has also been 
a valuable asset to Congress in her role as the Congressional Liaison 
for AMS.
  Ms. Hogan's breadth of knowledge about the extensive programs which 
AMS administers and her professionalism have always been greatly 
appreciated by all who have worked with her. You always knew that when 
you needed to get a clear explanation about a complicated AMS issue or 
quick assistance in drafting legislation, Ms. Hogan would be able to 
handle the job. AMS issues certainly do not make that job easy. Ms. 
Hogan has had to be proficient in issues from Federal Milk Marketing 
Orders, commodity grading, plant patents, agricultural transportation 
concerns, commodity purchases for the federal feeding programs, the 
Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA), Organic Certification, 
and the ever increasing number of commodity checkoff programs, to name 
a few. To illustrate the breadth of her career, about the same time Ms. 
Hogan started in the job of Congressional Liaison, Congress passed the 
first industry funded commodity checkoff legislation for the cotton 
industry, the Cotton Research and Promotion Act. Ms. Hogan has since 
supervised the enactment of 19 individual checkoff statutes and the 
most recently enacted ``generic statute.''
  Ms. Hogan is an exceptional breed of public servant who has always 
put customer service first and luckily for us, she considered Congress 
to be one of her most important customers. Ms. Hogan's graciousness, 
professionalism and extensive knowledge of the multitude of AMS 
programs and history will be sorely missed. I commend her on her 
distinctive career and wish her well as she returns to her native West 
Virginia.

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