[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18334]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



              SUPPORT MILLER-MILLER AMENDMENT TO H.R. 2646

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, like my colleague from Michigan, 
I also rise to talk about the farm bill that we will be debating on 
tomorrow. Of course, in that bill is the sugar subsidy program. There 
is going to be an amendment, the Miller-Miller amendment, and I rise in 
strong support of it. The sugar program hurts working people in my 
congressional district and the Miller-Miller amendment would help to 
redress the harm that they have suffered.
  The candy industry is important to the Chicago area. There are 31,000 
confectionery employees in Illinois, with 15,000 of those in Cook 
County. Unfortunately, employment in the confectionery industry in 
Chicago has fallen 11 percent since 1991. The sugar program has 
contributed to this decline.
  Along with other members of the Illinois delegation, I have 
repeatedly spoken on this floor about the injury caused to my 
constituents by the sugar program. We have not been alone. Mayor Daley 
and the Chicago City Council strongly oppose the sugar program. They 
are joined in this opposition by city business leaders and the Chicago 
Federation of Labor.
  For companies that make nonchocolate candy, sugar is a large portion 
of their total costs. The U.S. sugar program supports prices in our 
domestic market so that candymakers in Chicago are forced to pay more 
than twice as much for sugar as their competitors abroad. For example, 
on September 25, the price of raw sugar in the United States was 20.65 
cents per pound. On the same date, the world price of raw sugar was 
6.84 cents per pound.
  Candy manufacturers and workers must compete with the candy that is 
made offshore, using world-priced sugar. Imports of hard candy have 
been rising, from less than 12 percent of the U.S. market in 1997 to 19 
percent in 1999. These imports make it difficult for our companies and 
workers to compete, because a major part of their ingredient cost, 
sugar, is so much cheaper than in our domestic market. It is the 
classic unlevel playing field that we hear our colleagues from 
agriculture districts talk about so frequently. But in this case, it is 
the workers in Chicago and other places throughout the country who are 
on the wrong end of the field.
  The sugar programs helped cause the candy industry's problems through 
price supports and import quotas. The Miller-Miller amendment reforms 
the price support system; it does not abolish the sugar program. The 
amendment does not say that there should be no assistance to sugar 
growers and producers; it reduces price supports modestly and increases 
the penalties that sugar processing companies must pay when they fail 
to repay their government loan.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe that the sugar program, and I strongly believe 
in supporting farmers, but I believe that we have to support the needy 
and not the greedy. So I would urge my colleagues to vote for the 
Miller-Miller amendment and give the workers throughout America, and 
especially those in the confectionery industry, an opportunity to work 
and not see their jobs moved to other countries and other places.

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