Good afternoon. Today's hearing will consider H.R. 1789, the reauthorization of the Dairy Indemnity Program. H.R. 1789 was introduced by our colleague, the Ranking Member of the full Committee, Charlie Stenholm, and I am glad to be a cosponsor of it.

In the overall scheme of things, the Dairy Indemnity Program is a modest undertaking that reimburses dairymen when they are directed to remove their products from the market because of harmful residues occurring through no fault of the producer or processor. Although this may be a small program, it can be vitally important to some of America's dairymen facing possible bankruptcy.

Since 1964, the Dairy Indemnity Program was routinely reauthorized without much notice or attention. Unfortunately, it seems that after the smoke cleared from deliberations of the last Farm Bill, this program had been overlooked, since no action was taken to reauthorize it. The recent rise in aflatoxin contamination in several states, however, has refocused attention on the need for this program. Therefore, H.R. 1789, which itself spends no money, would simply provide the authorization for this important program which has quietly helped dairymen in trouble for over 30 years. At a time when our dairy industry is facing major restructuring and uncertainty, I would hope that we could continue to authorize and support this the fair and equitable program.