Earl Pomeroy: “Mr. Chairman, I find it somewhat ironic that the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. English) would stand up and say there…”

“Mr. Chairman, I find it somewhat ironic that the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. English) would stand up and say there is something wrong about supporting domestic production and that the cheapest foreign price is the thing that we should pay attention to. I have heard the same individual speak eloquently in an exactly opposite way when it comes to steel. When it comes to steel, he is all about protecting domestic capacity and resisting dumped steel subsidized by foreign governments. Mr. Chairman, I think he is right on steel, but he is dead wrong on sugar. He ought to be a little consistent. The same problem with exposing our domestic production to dumped subsidized exports apply in sugar just like they do in steel. Let us just talk for a moment about what is happening in the farm economy. We all know that our farmers are facing very serious distress. In North Dakota, the value of wheat has dropped 33 percent, 33 percent. Barley, 30 percent. Sugar prices are at a 20-year low. So it is a bit depressing to have to come and fight for the area where our farmers have at least some price protection, when everything else about family farming is so under stress. Some have suggested that this is about Big Sugar lobbyists and Big Sugar refineries. In the situation in North Dakota, it is about family farmers struggling to hang on.”