Candy-makers use Halloween to try to kill sugar program

Candy-makers are using Halloween to try to get Congress to kill the U.S. sugar support program. 

The Coalition for Sugar Reform on Wednesday sent around a release calling the sugar program “one of the last Depression-era ghosts.”

The colorful flyer argues that the U.S. sugar program is costing consumers $3.5 billion a year through higher prices and puts 600,000 food processing jobs at risk.

The sugar program supports sugar beet and sugarcane growers by restricting imports of sugar. It also limits the amount of domestic sugar that can be sold as long as imports remain low.

The American Sugar Alliance, which represents farmers, has argued that sugar program does not affect the budget and that removing support for sugar farmers could make the U.S. overly dependent on imports. 

The group blasted the sugar-users coalition for playing poltiics after Hurricane Sandy, which devastated the East Coast on Monday and Tuesday. 

"America's sugar farmers are no strangers to dealing with powerful hurricanes and other weather disasters, which is why we would never send out a petty press release hours after millions of Americans had their lives turned upside down," said Phillip Hayes, ASA spokesman. "Government leaders are rightly focused today on helping communities pick up the pieces.  It's surprising that lobbyists for some of the most profitable food companies in the world have instead focused on scoring cheap political points, putting U.S. farmers out of business, importing more subsidized foreign sugar, and boosting their already bloated profits."

 The sugar program is authorized by the now-expired 2002 farm bill, which is up for renewal. 

Congress could pass a new farm bill in the lame-duck session of Congress after the election. If the farm bill comes up on the House floor under an open rule, opponents of the sugar program could have a chance to strike.

When the farm bill came to the Senate floor this year, 46 senators voted to end the program. That was up from 29 votes in favor in 2001. 

Given a standoff over food stamp cuts in the farm bill, lobbyists say it is more likely that a farm bill gets wrapped into a fiscal cliff deficit bill. The sugar program does not have a budgetary cost, so it is unclear if there will be a move in changing the program inside the deficit talks between Congress and the White House. 

In the House, House Agriculture Committee ranking member Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) is the strongest defender of the program, and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) its toughest opponent. 

Reps. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) and Danny Davis (D-Ill.) lead the House Sugar Reform Caucus. 

“Halloween reminds us that while the sugar program is a treat for wealthy farmers who benefit from the sugar subsidies, it’s nothing but a trick for the millions of American families who pay a hidden tax on sugar every time they go to the grocery store,” said Pitts in a release. 

Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) have led the charge against the program in the Senate. 

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