Patsy T. Mink: “I rise against the M&M amendment and ask my colleagues to vote against it. I am deeply disturbed by the constant attack…”

“I rise against the M&M amendment and ask my colleagues to vote against it. I am deeply disturbed by the constant attack on the sugar industry. When they attack the sugar industry, they are really attacking my working people that are out there in the fields planting the cane and harvesting it, going to the mills and reducing it to brown sugar or molasses. There are about 6,000 jobs in my State that are dependent upon this industry, and throughout the country maybe 300,000 or 400,000 individuals. I consider this really an attack upon an industry of hardworking farmers who have struggled to survive. There was a time, only 10 years ago, when we had 13 sugar plantations in operation. They have struggled to stay alive. There is nobody making tons of money in this industry, but Hawaii has benefited in the past from these plantations that have been permitted to exist, and they have existed because there had been a strong farm program. Somehow or other there is a myth out there that there is a huge subsidy for sugar in this bill or anywhere. There is no subsidy. In fact, there is explicit language in the bill that says, and it directs the Secretary of Agriculture to operate the sugar program at no cost to the American taxpayer.”