[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 21471]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          SUGAR REFORM CAUCUS

  (Mr. KIRK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KIRK. Mr. Speaker, today a bipartisan group of Democrats and 
Republicans is forming the Congressional Sugar Reform Caucus. Our 
caucus will form a bipartisan effort to reform the sugar program 
through legislation, when appropriate, but also working with the 
President, manufacturing employers, and union leaders.
  The sugar program currently forces Americans to pay sugar prices at 
twice the world level. It kills manufacturing and union jobs. The sugar 
program cost over $400 million alone in fiscal year 2000 and this cost 
to the taxpayer is in addition to the lost jobs and higher grocery 
prices. By forcing sugar prices at two or three times the market price, 
our law not only inflates consumer costs, it creates an incentive to 
move manufacturing jobs offshore. No one knows this better than Chicago 
where thousands of people in manufacturing jobs were thrown out of work 
because of the sugar program.
  Mr. Speaker, our sugar policy is a mess, and we need to defend 
manufacturing jobs by reforming this program.

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