[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12964]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                           THE SUGAR PROGRAM

  (Mr. DAVIS of Illinois asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, some of our colleagues defend the 
sugar subsidy as a no-net-cost program. If that was ever true, it is 
not true today. The sugar program costs plenty.
  It costs tax dollars. Last year the Department of Agriculture spent 
$465 million on sugar subsidies.
  It costs consumers. The General Accounting Office, a congressional 
agency, estimates that the people who consume and use sugar, which is 
all of us, pay an additional $1.9 billion a year because the Federal 
sugar subsidy keeps prices higher than they would be in a free market.
  And the sugar program costs industry. Companies in my community, in 
my neighborhood, and other places throughout the country are moving 
away because the price is too high. That is unfair. It is unfair to 
consumers, it is unfair to workers, and it is unfair to America.

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