Jeff Miller: “this amendment, the Miller- Miller amendment, is a modest and simple reform of the sugar program. It is not the…”

“this amendment, the Miller- Miller amendment, is a modest and simple reform of the sugar program. It is not the elimination of the program. In 1996, we tried to eliminate the program, missed by 5 votes then, but we kind of are reluctant in this Congress to eliminate anything, especially in the agriculture program. So this is a modest one-cent change in sugar. That is right. We are only going to lower the price from 18 cents to 17 cents, a 5 percent reduction in the price of sugar, which amounts to a $500 million savings, according to the Congressional Budget Office, $500 million worth of savings over the next 10 years. This is a very bipartisan bill, as my colleagues will see from the vote on this particular amendment. Even the secretaries of agriculture from three different administrations have come out in favor of this amendment. Secretary Glickman, Secretary of Agriculture under President Clinton, Secretary Clayton Yeutter under President Bush, and Secretary Jack Block under President Reagan, have all come out and said the sugar program is no longer sustainable, we need to change it, and this amendment is a good step in the right direction. Let me briefly comment about what the sugar program is. Well, the sugar program is a Federal program where we maintain a very high price for sugar in the United States. In fact, sugar prices in the United States are two to three times world prices.…”