May 26, 2006

Dear Representative:

On behalf of the undersigned organizations, we urge you to support the following twoamendments to the Agriculture Appropriations Act, 2007: Representatives Steve Chabot (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown’s (D-OH) amendment to cut funding for the Market Access Program (MAP), and Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Jeff Flake’s (R-AZ) amendment toreduce the sugar loan program by approximately 6 percent.

These amendments would provide much needed reform of our agriculture policy and significant savings to the American taxpayer.

The Market Access Program subsidizes corporations and trade associations to advertise their products overseas. The program has cost taxpayers more than $2 billion over the past twenty  years. Past recipients of MAP grants include Welchs, Sunkist Growers Inc, and the Popcorn Board—hardly companies in need of a helping hand.

Sugar subsidies cost taxpayers over $1 billion dollars annually. Moreover, the vast majority of sugar program beneficiaries are not small farmers. In fact, the General Accounting Office (GAO) estimates that 42 percent of all sugar subsidies go to only one percent of recipients – a group comprised mainly of large and corporate farms.

Facing a massive federal deficit, there is no reason taxpayers should be funneling billions of dollars to sugar companies and underwriting the advertising campaigns of multi-million dollar corporations. Cutting funding for these programs would save precious taxpayer dollars and provide a dose of common sense to our agriculture programs.

Again, we urge you to support the Chabot-Brown amendment to cut the wasteful Market Access Program and the Blumenauer-Flake amendment to reform the sugar loan program.

Sincerely,

Jill Lancelot
President/Co-Founder
Taxpayers for Common Sense Action

Thomas Schatz
President
Council for Citizens Against Government Waste