(Washington, D.C.) – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today applauded the creation of the Congressional Sugar Reform Caucus, led by Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Danny Davis (D-Ill.), Phil Crane (R-Ill.) and Clay Shaw (R-Fla.).

CCAGW has long championed significant reform of the outdated sugar program, which remained unchanged in both the 1996 and 2002 farm bills.

“The sugar program still allows a handful of sugar producers to gouge U.S. consumers to the tune of almost $2 billion annually.  In fact, the Government Accountability Office has found that almost 60 percent of all sugar program benefits go to just the wealthiest one percent of sugar farms,” said Tom Schatz, CCAGW President.

“The sugar program still relies on restrictive import quotas that undermine U.S. agriculture’s bargaining position in world markets and force U.S. consumers to pay two to three times the world price for sugar and sugar products,” Schatz continued.

“CCAGW hopes that the Congressional Sugar Reform Caucus will be able to educate their fellow Members of Congress to the harm caused by the sugar program and that they will be successful in laying the groundwork for significant reform of the program in the next farm bill,” Schatz concluded.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.