SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. — Despite requests from some opposed to the sugar program in the 2014 U.S. farm bill and recent attempts in Congress to alter the program, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee said there were no plans to reopen the farm bill.
“I have no intention of reopening and re-debating the farm bill,” Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican and chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Nutrition told participants on Aug. 3 at the 32nd annual International Sweetener Symposium via pre-recorded video because the Senate was in session.
Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat and ranking member of the committee, commented via video that the bipartisan success of the farm bill was “rare in Washington today,” but that “challenges go on” from amendments to undermine the farm bill’s sugar program. She commended farm groups for working together on legislative issues.
The International Sweetener Symposium is sponsored by the American Sugar Alliance, which represents U.S. beet and cane growers, sugar processors and refiners and allied groups.
