| WASHINGTON -- Sugar growers and sugar users are gearing up for their
biggest fight in five years as Congress today begins considering a new,
10-year farm bill.
Both sides are predicting a close vote when the House considers an
amendment offered by Reps. Dan Miller, R-Fla., and George Miller, D-Calif.,
(no relation) that would reduce the level of government loans by a penny a
pound, double forfeiture fees to 2 cents a pound, and prevent the U.S.
secretary of agriculture from imposing marketing limitations on
domestically produced sugar.
The Miller-Miller amendment also would earmark $300 million for
Everglades restoration.
The money would come from anticipated savings resulting from reducing
the sugar program.
Growers and sugar workers have been making the rounds of congressional
offices for several weeks in anticipation of the vote, which had been
scheduled for the week of Sept. 10. It was delayed by the terrorist
attacks on New York and Washington.
The farm bill's sugar provisions would retain the current loan rate of
18 cents a pound for raw cane and 22.9 cents a pound for refined beet
sugar -- the same level it has been since 1985.
The provisions also would allow the agriculture secretary to impose
marketing restrictions that would limit the availability of domestically
grown sugar. Any excess sugar would be stored by processors.
Both sides have turned up the lobbying heat in recent days.
At least eight Floridians who either grow or process sugar were in
Washington on Tuesday to urge lawmakers to support the sugar provisions
included in the $171 billion farm bill. Among them were Belle Glade
growers David Goodlett, Sonny Stein, Rick Roth and Dennis Wedgworth, who
met with Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, and other lawmakers.
Florida's three major sugar cane growers are U.S. Sugar Corp. of
Clewiston, Florida Crystals Corp. of West Palm Beach, and the Sugar Cane
Growers Cooperative of Florida, based in Belle Glade.
Jeff Nedelman, spokesman for the Coalition for Sugar Reform, a leading
opponent of the federal sugar program, said member companies and groups
have sent people to Washington to lobby for the Miller-Miller amendment.
But with the distractions of the terrorist attacks, lawmakers are only
just now beginning to pay attention to the sugar issue, Nedelman said.
Several taxpayer watchdog and environmental groups have indicated they
will count the sugar vote as part of their annual ratings of how lawmakers
vote.
A vote to adopt the farm bill provisions will be counted as a negative
vote by groups including the League of Conservation Voters, Americans for
Tax Reform and the Council of Citizens Against Government Waste.
In a letter to Dan Miller, a group of Florida environmental groups
wrote: "The current sugar program is a disaster. It costs consumers
$2 billion a year in added food costs."
The 11-member group -- which includes Audubon of Florida, the Defenders
of Wildlife and the Everglades Trust -- said the federal government spent
$500 million last year when sugar producers forfeited on their loans.
"The Agriculture Committee's farm bill would continue the same
disastrous policy of encouraging more and more domestic sugar
production," the group's letter said.
Meanwhile, the American Sugar Alliance -- the lobbying arm of sugar
producers -- bought full-page advertisements in two Capitol Hill
publications claiming the Coalition for Sugar Reform "is nothing more
than a shill for a group of multi-national corporate giants bent on
driving down the price of sugar, while lining their pockets with increased
profits." |