Rep. Dan Miller (news - bio - voting record), a Florida Republican, said the bill would gradually reduce the government-set minimum price, or price support, offered to U.S. sugar processors starting this crop season.

The legislation would also reduce raw cane sugar prices to the same level as the world market.

U.S. sugar policy, shaped largely by a powerful decades-old lobby of big sugar refiners and beet and cane growers, has been a target of reformers for years.

Critics of the sugar program contend price supports have kept domestic sugar prices at more than twice the world level, and put many refiners out of business.

Last year, the U.S. government was required to buy $435 million in sugar and it costs $1.6 million a month to store this sugar, Miller said.

``While this is a sweet deal for sugar producers, it leaves a sour taste in the mouths of taxpayers, consumers, American workers and the environment,'' Miller said.

The U.S. sugar industry said the price support system was necessary to keep processors from going bankrupt because of cheap, subsidized imports mandated under international trade agreements. Domestic sugar prices are near 20-year lows.

Last week, the U.S. Agriculture Department said it would sell up to 140,000 tons of government-owned sugar to help boost depressed sugar prices.