Jeff Miller: “Mr. Chairman, the amendment we have before us today is for an incremental change to the sugar program. Last year the…”

“Mr. Chairman, the amendment we have before us today is for an incremental change to the sugar program. Last year the gentleman from New York [Mr. Schumer] and I introduced legislation for a total phaseout of the program, but this year the amendment only addresses the issue of nonrecourse loans. The sugar program is considered the sugar daddy of corporate welfare because the benefits go to a limited number of people; in fact, 42 percent of the benefits of the sugar program go to only 1 percent of the growers. The sugar program is an old command- and-control economic model that still exists, unfortunately, in this country, and it keeps the price of sugar at twice the world price. The sugar program was not changed in the last year's farm bill, and that is unfortunate because last year's farm bill had very significant change in agriculture in this country. But, sadly, sugar was the one product or crop that was exempted, and this is what happened: For example, last year in Time magazine, the week that President Clinton signed the legislation a full page article in Time did not talk about all the good things of that program, it talked about the fact that sugar sweetest deal, the landmark farm deal, left sugar subsidies standing, reformers wondering what went wrong. Agricultural socialism was supposed to end this week by the signing by President Clinton. But for America's sugar growers, how sweet it still is.…”