WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Herb Kohl issued the following statement in response to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack’s announcement today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting nominations for a new Dairy Industry Advisory Committee.  Kohl is the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee and has worked with the Administration on several initiatives to help struggling dairy famers, including strengthening the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) program, boosting farm and agriculture lending, and fully implementing the Dairy Export Incentive Program. 

            “With a combination of low prices and high input costs, dairy producers across the nation are feeling acute economic pain.  Secretary Vilsack is correctly focusing not only on immediate relief, but on long term structural challenges as well.  There is a wealth of Wisconsin expertise on dairy matters and I will be pressing to make sure that expertise is fully engaged in this process,” Kohl said.