Sugar Producer

22 Sugar Producer JUNE/JULY 2018 FROM THE ASGA By Luther Markwart | EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT Crazy Town D.C. is not slowing down, and neither is the sugar industry In an election year with a contentious and chaotic political environment, predictions of what may happen in Washington, D.C., on any given day of the current week can be a challenge. Forecasting precise outcomes and timing of actions by Congress or the administration weeks in advance of this article's publication is impossible, and you are likely to know the outcomes of our key issues well before you read this. What I can give you is the context of the challenges in the battles we are fighting. 2018 FARM BILL Historically, the Senate and House agriculture committees and the farm bill debate have been generally bipartisan, with any divisions being based on regional commodities. Everyone knows that they need each other to get a bill passed. The Republican House proposal to make modifications in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), however, drove Democrats to unanimous opposition to the bill. We expect to see amendments to hurt sugar, impose payment limitations and cut crop insurance funding; each of those would be poison pills for passage of the bill. As of April 26, there were 236 Republicans, 193 Democrats and six vacancies, so Republicans will need 216 votes to pass a farm bill on a straight party-line vote. The 31 members of the Freedom Caucus oppose many aspects of the farm policy, and Republicans can only count on 207 votes for the farm bill. The challenge for Republican leadership is to gain support from enough members of the Freedom Caucus to support the bill and defeat all the poison-pill amendments noted above. This is no simple task, and it amounts to something akin to trench warfare for those of us on the front lines. As of this writing, we are expecting a vote on the House floor in mid-May that will include debate on an anti-sugar amendment, but that will depend on leadership's ability to assure the votes for passage. We are being told that the Senate bill does not have the SNAP reforms contained in the House bill because they would not pass the Senate. That bill will be much more bipartisan. We are told that we could see a committee bill in mid- to late May, and perhaps a floor vote in June. Neither the House nor the Senate bills propose any changes in current sugar policy, yet major efforts by our customers to tear our policy apart are very real. Several proposals intend to drive the price of sugar down. A letter was been sent to both agriculture committees by 60 bankers and professional tax preparers from every sugar state to make it clear that such reforms would be devastating to both beet and cane producers. Our opponents are well-coordinated and extremely active. The House sugar reform bill has 75 co-sponsors, and there are 26 conservative groups and think tanks making this a high priority. The major editorial boards, of course, have been opposing us for decades. But we, too, have our multifaceted strategies to push back on those efforts. NAFTA Negotiations to modernize NAFTA are very important to our industry. We have kept in close contact with our negotiators to assure that grower interests and views were made known. While the suspension agreements with Mexico manage the proper trade relationship between our two countries, Canada has always been our concern. Again, Canada imports 93 percent of the sugar it consumes and has no legitimate offensive interest to export surplus production to the U.S. BIOENGINEERED DISCLOSURE REGULATIONS We are waiting for the proposed labeling regulations to be made public, but delays have been caused by many reviews within the administration. While Congress mandated that the regulations be completed by the end of this July, that deadline will be missed. We are prepared to defend our position that there is no difference between beet and cane sugar, and that, therefore, no disclosure is required. n Live boƩom trailers with mulƟple opƟons for any crop, call 701-284-6100 for a quote. manufactured by 47709SafeT16h.indd 1 4/9/18 3:02 PM

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