Sugar price supports survive vote

Republican defections could put overall farm bill in jeopardy

WASHINGTON — The U.S. sugar industry on Thursday won an easierthan-expected victory over food processors, soft drink manufacturers and candy makers trying to rewrite the government’s much-criticized sugar program, a web of price supports, loans and tariffs that props up prices for the commodity.

In a decisive 278-137 vote, the House rejected a bid by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., to significantly weaken the program and invite more foreign competition.

The sugar program was one of the key battles in this year’s farm bill, a five-year renewal of federal farm and nutrition policy.

This year, conservatives hoping to force progress on unrelated immigration issues are lining up to threaten passage of the overall farm measure. The move by the hard-right House Freedom Caucus appears to have put passage of the measure in jeopardy.

GOP leaders are promoting this year’s renewal of the measure as tightening work and job training requirements for food stamps. But the food stamp proposal has driven Democrats away from the bill. That means Republicans have to pass the measure with minimal defections, and it puts pressure on Republicans who have criticized costly farm subsidies in the past.

Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-NC., said that “the time is now” to deal with immigration and that the farm bill doesn’t face a pressing deadline. He said farmers “want us to deal with immigration and the farm bill both.”

The sugar program is part of an amalgam of commodity support programs that have wide support in Republican-leaning farm country. But many Republicans oppose the sugar program, saying it violates the party’s free market principles.

“Some GOP moderates are uneasy about the new work standards for food stamps, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates would drive up to 2 million people from the program.