CONTACT: Dana Hagerty 202/225-2165
WASHINGTON, DC -- Congressman Collin C. Peterson today voted against the Fiscal Year 1997 Agriculture Appropriations Bill because the bill is bad for sugar and could hurt the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
“The only farm commodity that this bill singles out for a government-imposed cap is sugar, and that simply isn’t fair,” Peterson said. “The 21.2 cents per pound cap on sugar could cause farmers to lose as much as $750 million by encouraging imports from heavily subsidized European sugar producers. This only benefits sugar refiners and giant food companies.
“As for CRP, USDA is now in the process of writing regulations for eligibility criteria for CRP, and report language in this bill will interfere with that rulemaking process,” Peterson continued. “The report language says that all CRP acres should be re-bid and evaluated using the same criteria that was used during the thirteenth sign-up. But if we follow those guidelines, very few acres in the 7th District would likely be reauthorized.
“This legislation could damage the progress we have made in the Agriculture Committee to get CRP reauthorized,” Peterson said. “I will be working hard to see that both the cap on sugar and the report language on CRP are removed when this bill is considered by a House-Senate conference committee.”