Eliminate Sugar Subsidy. This amendment would eliminate the federal sugar subsidy program, which creates import quotas, price supports, and loans to growers. Noting that the cost of this program to consumers is $1.4 billion in higher prices and higher taxes, Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) explained that "the sugar program stifles competition. Seventeen growers get 38 percent of the benefit of this program…."
The measure, an amendment to S. 1233, was tabled (killed) by the Senate on August 4, 1999 by a vote of 66-33 (Roll Call 254). We have assigned pluses to the nays.