Heidi Heitkamp: “yesterday I came to the floor of the Senate to talk not only about the farm bill, but specifically about the importance…”

“yesterday I came to the floor of the Senate to talk not only about the farm bill, but specifically about the importance of the Sugar Program to the compromise that is the farm bill. I talked about growers getting protections in terms of crop insurance, I talked about the dairy program, I talked about specialty crops, and I talked about the importance of protecting the domestic sugar industry and using a no-cost approach which has been the approach we have dealt with for years in the Sugar Program. Today I don't want to repeat all of that discussion. What I would like to do, however, is respond directly to the Shaheen amendment and some of the information we have been hearing about the Shaheen amendment going forward. I think it is important because we have heard the Shaheen amendment would simply roll back the Sugar Program to the policies in place before the 2008 farm bill. In reality, this amendment would do far more than what was included in the program prior to 2008 and would, in fact, threaten 142,000 American sugar-producing jobs in 22 States. I want to be very specific about the uniqueness of this compared to pre-2008. So, specifically, the amendment institutes two new policies beyond repealing the 2008 farm bill changes to the Sugar Program that are damaging to our farmers and sugar manufacturers in the United States. First, the amendment would mandate for the first time a 15.5-percent stocks-to-use ratio.…”