Supporting National Dairy Month
Floor Speech
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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. I rise in support of H. Res. 507, a resolution supporting the goals of National Dairy Month, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, for the past 70 years, we have celebrated the month of June as National Dairy Month. While there have been some years during this time where dairymen have had cause for celebration, I think we would be hard pressed this year to find a dairyman who is in much of a mood for celebration.
As dairy prices started to rise in 2007, reaching record levels by June of last year, prices started to decline this past September and October, ultimately reaching a devastatingly low price by February. While there has been some slight rebounding in prices, dairymen across the country are still suffering from extremely low prices received in the marketplace and from extremely high prices for inputs, such as feed and fuel. In fact, while the average uniform price in the Northeast Federal milk marketing order for June of 2009 is $11.93 per hundredweight of milk, the USDA estimates that it costs dairymen in my home State of Pennsylvania $27.15 per hundredweight of milk just to produce it.
Mr. Speaker, I recognize that the adoption of this resolution is a bit late this year, but as we honor National Dairy Month for the 70th consecutive year, I ask all of my colleagues to consider the actions we take here in this Capitol Building and how these actions reflect on the small family farming businesses around the country.
Farmers do their best in keeping us well fed and in keeping us clothed and in keeping us housed, and we can, at the very least, consider the financial burdens that we place on these men and women when we contemplate legislation that would dramatically increase their costs of production.
I want to thank my good friend from Georgia for the hearing that he held last week and for the two hearings that we are going to conduct on behalf of the dairy industry. I really appreciate that. I know the dairy farmers of Pennsylvania's Fifth Congressional District appreciate that as well, and I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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