Date: 1989-06-13
Speaker: DE LA GARZA (democrat)
Chamber: H

Madam Speaker. I appreciate the opportunity to inform my colleagues that for the past 2 years we have had a resolution providing for a National Dairy Goat Awareness Week. and for some unfortunate reasons it was painted in a negative way in an ad in the campaign. and then it was brought to some ridicule in the media. and now no one wants to sign my Dairy Goat Awareness Week resolution. I do not blame them because they do not want to be ridiculed. but this is serious business. Madam Speaker. I had hoped that by this weekas we have done the previous 2 yearsCongress would have passed a simple resolution to designate the third week in June as National Dairy Goat Awareness Week. House Joint Resolution 166. which I introduced earlier this year. would have provided a little public recognition for the thousands of people around the country who raise dairy goats or who process and market goat milk products. This would have been at no cost to the Federal Treasury. But it is now the third week in June and House Joint Resolution 166 has not attracted enough cosponsors this year to be brought up on the House floor. Neither has the Senate resolution. That is not to say National Dairy Goat Awareness Week did not attract attention. As my colleagues may recall. National Dairy Goat Awareness Week was an object of ridicule in several political campaign television ads last year. And now this year it has been cited as an example of why Congress should clamp down on commemorative legislation. Needless to say. this has not been the kind df recognition I or the people in the dairy goat industry had Intended or wanted. Neither I nor any person associated with our Nations dairy goat industry ever dreamed our good intentions could be so distorted. Perhaps the number of commemorative bills have gotten out of hand. But the dairy goat resolution is neither silly or Irrelevant to those of us who care about agriculture and nutrition. For more than 7.000 years dairy goats have provided milk and sustenance for people around the world. Sixty percent of the worlds population rely on goat milk products as the primary source of their dairy intake. Without dairy goat milk. many children would suffer from serious nutritional deficiencies. Here in the United States the American Dairy Goat Association reports that it has more than 9.000 members in 50 States. with over onequarter of a million dairy goats registered. Goat milk products are increasingly popular with healthconscious Americans. Constant improvements in their genetics have made American dairy goats a popular export item to countries where goats are the main source of dairy products. Although we cannot convince a few of our colleagues that this 1 serious business. I think. Madam Speaker. that I shall declare Dairy Goat Awareness Week on my own. regardless of how many cosponsors we have. so that we may pay tribute to that lowly. yet very productive animal. You can drink the milk. you can eat the meat. you can use the hide. It can then also cut the lawn. and it can do almost anyI112489 thing that a multitude of people can do. Madam Speaker. the dairy goat has been with us for thousands of years. and I pay tribute to those who work with them now in the United States of America. Madam Speaker. although I cannot provide the necessary 218 cosponsors for this resolution. I want my colleagues and the American people to know that I am proud and honored to be associated with the thousands of men and women who comprise our Nations dairy goat industry. As chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture. I recognize the valuable contribution this industry makes to American agriculture and to the food needs of people around the world. While underappreciated by us here in this Congress. the humble and hardy dairy goat will nevertheless survive and continue to fill a vital niche in American agriculture.