00CS FOR HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 39(FSH)                                                                             
01 Urging the United States government to purchase surplus pink salmon for aid                                             
02 packages to the Balkans.                                                                                                
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                              
04  WHEREAS the United States has undeniably become the world's greatest military and                                    
05 economic power; and                                                                                                     
06  WHEREAS the recent conflict in the Balkans between the Serbian and Albanian                                          
07 people has involved the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); and                                                  
08  WHEREAS, as a member of NATO, the United States is now involved in the conflict;                                     
09 and                                                                                                                     
10  WHEREAS the conflict in the Balkans has produced hundreds of thousands of                                            
11 refugees; and                                                                                                           
12  WHEREAS the United States, together with other NATO member nations, is now                                           
13 caring for many of those refugees; and                                                                                  
14  WHEREAS, in the coming weeks, the United States will help feed the Albanian                                          

01 refugees; and                                                                                                           
02  WHEREAS most of the refugees are Albanian and, being a people of the Adriatic Sea,                                   
03 have included seafood in their diets for thousands of years; and                                                        
04  WHEREAS food purchased by the United States Department of Agriculture must                                           
05 come from surplus supplies; and                                                                                         
06  WHEREAS recent record runs of Alaska pink salmon have produced a surplus of both                                     
07 canned and pouched pink salmon products;                                                                                
08  BE IT RESOLVED by the Alaska State Legislature that the United States government                                     
09 is strongly encouraged to purchase surplus Alaska canned and pouched pink salmon to be                                  
10 included in food aid packages to the Balkans.                                                                           
11  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the                              
12 United States; to the Honorable Daniel R. Glickman, Secretary of the U.S. Department of                                 
13 Agriculture; and to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S.                                   
14 Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska                                       
15 delegation in Congress.