Lawmakers introduce sugar trade policy reform bill

The Sugar Policy Modernization Act, which was proposed simultaneously this week in both the House and Senate, would require the sugar industry to pay back any taxpayer dollars they receive when they forfeit on government loans.    Bipartisan legislation was introduced in both the House and Senate this week which proposes to reform the nation’s trade policies for sugar.
   The Sugar Policy Modernization Act, which was proposed by Reps. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., and Danny Davis, D-Ill., and Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., in their respective chambers, would require the sugar industry to pay back any taxpayer dollars they receive when they forfeit on government loans. 
   The bill also calls for the removal of the U.S. Department of Agriculture program that tells sugar farmers how much sugar they can grow and sell. 
   Sugar is considered the most tightly controlled agricultural commodity in the United States and was the only commodity not reformed by Congress in the 2014 Farm Bill. The current sugar program requires consumers and businesses to spend up to $3 billion in U.S. sugar processor subsidies, according to industry supporters of the legislation. 
   The Commerce Department has stated that for every sugar-producing job saved through sugar price supports about three American manufacturing jobs are lost. It’s estimated the current sugar program has caused about 123,000 jobs lost since 1997, according to the Census Bureau.
   “If we’re serious about creating long-term economic success, then we need to foster a better environment for small-business growth; we need to reform the sugar program now,” said John Downs, co-chairman of the Coalition for Sugar Reform and president and CEO of the National Confectioners Association, in a statement. “There is great potential for expanded factories, more jobs, and new U.S.-based facilities if the government permitted food and beverage companies to have access to fair prices on sugar.”
   “The Sugar Policy Modernization Act does it all. It will help American businesses of all sizes, consumers, workers and families – without costing taxpayers,” said Rick Pasco, president of the Sweetener Users Association (SUA). “It is very rare that Congress has the chance to consider legislation that will do so much for so many.”
   “Big candy companies have lobbied for decades to outsource production to foreign countries with high subsidies and low labor and environmental standards,” said Galen Lee, president of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association and a member of the American Sugar Alliance. 
   He explained that U.S. producers do not receive subsidy checks, like their foreign counterparts. Instead, producers get loans to help cash-flow operations while sugar is stored for customers. Because loans are repaid with interest, sugar policy has operated without taxpayer cost in the 2014 Farm Bill, he said.
   However, getting Capitol Hill to pass the Sugar Policy Modernization Act will be easier said than done, the American Sugar Alliance noted. Amendments designed to change U.S. sugar policy were rejected three times on the Senate floor, two times on the House floor, and twice at the committee level during the 2014 Farm Bill debate.