Expressing Sense of House Relating to Tariff-Rate Quotas for Raw and Refined Sugar

Floor Speech

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Mr. LATTA. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 378.

The current U.S. sugar program is uncompetitive, outdated, it stunts American job creation, harms U.S. confectioners, and forces food manufacturers and families to pay a higher cost for any product made with sugar. Recent data suggests that without reform, the program puts 600,000 jobs in the sugar-using industries at risk. I am all too aware of these negative economic impacts during a recent visit to a leading confectioner in my district.

Headquartered in Bryan, Ohio, Spangler Candy Company is a family-owned business that has been providing consumers with Dum Dums, Saf-T-Pops, Circus Peanuts, candy canes, and other confections since 1906. This company currently has over 400 U.S. employees; but if it could purchase sugar at world-market prices instead of U.S. prices, that number would be closer to 600. That's a difference of 200 highly skilled manufacturing jobs in a single small midwestern town. Imagine the positive economic growth that would result from sugar reform nationwide.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution. Reforming the U.S. sugar program will restore fairness in the sugar market, encourage U.S. investment, and spur job creation in our local communities.

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