The bill by Rep. Dan Miller, a Republican from Bradenton, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., would phase down the federal loan rate for sugar to 14 cents a pound from 18 cents, require the loans to be repaid in cash -- not crops, as the current program allows -- and eliminate import restrictions on foreign sugar.

The federal sugar program "is one of the most egregious forms of corporate welfare we have in this country," Dan Miller, a longtime opponent of the sugar program, said at a Capitol Hill news conference.

George Miller said, "It's become very, very clear over this last crop year that the federal sugar program is completely dysfunctional, it's completely broken and it's failing on all fronts."

In the budget year that ended Sept. 30, sugar processors forfeited nearly 892,500 tons of raw sugar at a cost to the federal government of $465 million. The government also is paying about $1.4 million a month to the sugar processors to warehouse the raw sugar.

South Florida's three sugar companies -- U.S. Sugar Corp. in Clewiston, Palm Beach-based Florida Crystals and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida in Belle Glade, forfeited a total of 294,000 tons of sugar, worth about $100 million, last fall.

News of the lawmakers' move raised hackles Wednesday at U.S. Sugar.

"It's outrageous that American congressional representatives want to give America's sugar market to subsidize foreign producers," said Judy Sanchez, U.S. Sugar's spokeswoman. "They're being pushed by the big candy and food companies, who want to increase their profit margins at the expense of the American farmers. They're the driving force behind this."

The congressmen cited a recent General Accounting Office study that estimated the sugar program costs the American consumer $1.9 billion a year in higher food prices.

The lawmakers also said the sugar program has contributed to the pollution of the Everglades by encouraging growing on marginally productive land.

Under the proposed bill, the loan price for sugar would decline by a penny a pound until it reached 14 cents in budget year 2004. It would remain at that level indefinitely.

Meanwhile, import restrictions on foreign sugar -- designed to keep domestic sugar prices above the 18-cent loan rate -- also would be phased out until the U.S. sugar price was either the rate at which sugar is sold on the world market or at the loan rate plus interest.

Staff writer Susan Salisbury contributed to this story.