National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. KING. Mr. President, I wish to commend the Senator from Texas for his leadership both on the juvenile justice provision of the National Defense Act, and also, very importantly, on foreign investment. We often hear around here testimony about all-of-government efforts. What we are facing is an all-of-society effort from some of our competitors--principally, China. Their private sector and their public sector are sometimes indistinguishable when it comes to investments. That is why this modernization act that the Senator from Texas has taken the lead on and has included as an amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act is vitally important to national security.

I just want to thank the Senator for his leadership on a very important issue and commend the work of the committee in including it in the bill. Like the Senator, I look forward to supporting this bill. I think it is important on many levels, but since the Senator is on the floor, I wanted to commend him for his leadership on these issues.

Food Labels

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about a regulatory issue. It would be easy to joke about it, and I will probably not be able to resist a few puns along the way, but it is very serious.

The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing food labels. They want to make them more understandable. They want to make them more informative to people when they are purchasing food in the grocery store. They have increased the font size on the calorie serving size, the number of servings in a container, and this all makes sense. But there is a place where the proposed rule of the FDA goes off the rails, if you will, and that involves maple syrup and honey, which the agency is suggesting should have on its label ``added sugar.''

Well, maple syrup and honey essentially are sugar. And in pure maple syrup, in pure honey, which we produce in our State and other States in the Northern Tier, nothing is added. To add the phrase ``added sugar'' to maple syrup and honey makes no sense and is indeed confusing to the consumer because if you read a label that says ``maple syrup'' and it says ``added sugar,'' your natural assumption is somebody has put more sugar in there. That is what you would take from that.

Indeed, that is what this label requirement that has been proposed would do. It would actually undermine the good work that has been done by the maple syrup industry and the honey industry over the years to explain to consumers the difference between pure honey and pure maple syrup and other products that have other things in them and may have sugar added.

This is a photograph of where maple syrup comes from. This is a maple tree, and the farmer is tapping it. These tubes all lead to a maple house. Making maple syrup is not easy. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. That is why we call it liquid gold. It is a wonderful product. It is a pure product. There is nothing that is added between the tree and the jar that you buy in your grocery store if, indeed, it is real maple syrup. Nothing is added.

Last week, I visited a wonderful guy in Maine who is known as the Bee Whisperer, and he--or rather his bees--makes honey. We were out in a back field where the hives are. I said: How many bees are out there? He sort of scratched his head and said: About 3 million. Bees are in the hives in this back field of the Bee Whisperer up in Maine and when the honey comes into the combs, they scrape the wax off the top. The wax is created by the bees, by the way, so it is a totally natural product. The honey then comes out, and here it is coming out into a jar.

This is pure honey. To add to this label ``sugar added'' makes no sense because it is not. There is nothing added, except what the bees produce.

So this is a case where I think what we are talking about is a well- meaning attempt on the part of this agency, the FDA, to inform consumers, but, in the process, what they are really doing is misinforming them.

Honey comes from the bee to the jar--nothing in between. Maple syrup comes from the tree to the jar--nothing in between. Nothing is added. The only thing that is added by this proposed regulation is confusion, and confusion is the whole thing we are trying to avoid here.

We are not adding sugar. Sugar isn't added into maple syrup and into honey. If you put ``added sugar'' on the label, it will make the consumer think that this isn't a pure product, and it will undo 50 years of effort to make the public understand the difference between pure maple syrup and pure honey and something that may indeed have some added ingredient.

MaryAnne Kinney--by the way, MaryAnne's husband is the guy that was tapping the tree that I showed a minute ago--is a State legislator in Maine, and she is also a maple producer, and she is in Washington this week spreading the word about this issue. I just want to add my voice to it because this would have a significant impact on these industries nationwide. These are important businesses. In Maine, maple syrup is a $20 million-a-year business.

I have to admit that one day years ago, when I was the Governor of Maine, we used to tap a maple tree in the front yard of the Governor's residence every year. It was a ceremonial event. The press was there. I went out one year to tap that tree, nailed one of these guys into the tree, and then the sap dripped out into the bucket. This is the old fashioned way. The new way is what I showed before; the tubes run right to the sugar house.

The press was there, and they said: Governor, what do you think of Vermont maple syrup? I said: Vermont maple syrup? Are you kidding me? We use that in cars in Maine; we don't eat that stuff. Well, it started a war with the Governor of Vermont, which we settled amicably, I might add.

Maple syrup is important to us. I think this is would be a funny issue if it weren't so serious for producers. As a matter of fact, when you say they are going to put ``added sugar'' on a label for maple syrup, most people think it is kind of funny, but it is not funny to the industry.

So I can't resist, Mr. President: I am hoping for a sweet ending to a sticky mess and that the FDA this week will do the right thing.

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