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Show Sen. Moss Asks Vote On Sugar Bill if House Won't Act Senator Frank E. Moss of Utah Tuesday urged the Senate Finance Fi-nance Committee to bring a sugar bill in for a vote if the House Agriculture Committee does not act soon on the problem. Chairman of the House Agriculture Agri-culture Committee is Congressman Congress-man Harold D. Cooley of North Carolina, who has expressed a preference for continuing the Sugar Act for another year in its present form. Senator Moss is a cosponsor of a bill which would extend the act for four years and provide the President and the Secretary of Agriculture power to deal with adverse situations arising because of the instability or unfriendliness un-friendliness of governments of countries which which we import im-port sugar. It would allow fixed increases of 150,000 tons per year in domestic do-mestic beet quotas, 50,000 tons in domestic cane quotas, and provide that future Puerto Rico deficits be reallocated exclusively exclusive-ly to foreign countries. The Utah Democrat addressed the Senate, asserting that the bill he supports is in accord with the philosophy of previous sugar legislation, leg-islation, but that it recognizes that "circumstances do change with time, in sugar as well as for other commodities." "A primary purpose of the Sugar Su-gar act is to assure dependable supplies of this vital product, at reasonable prices, for American consumers," he said. Senator Moss traced briefly the history of the sugar industry of Utah, and the history of sugar legislation from the Jones-Costi-gan Act of 1934 to the present law, which he said had worked. The newibll provides that the Secretary of Agriculture may obtain ob-tain supplies elsewhere in case a country willfully withholds its quota for later dumping. It allows al-lows the president to make temporary tem-porary adjustments in quotas of foreign countries, with the approval ap-proval of Congress if it is in session. ses-sion. Of these provisions, Senator Moss said: "Most of us now recognize, reluctantly, that there is currently cur-rently widespread instability in our near neighbor and long time major supplier of cane sugar Cuba. This seriously jeopardizes about one third of our annual requirements. That is a very big and vitally necessary share of the total. The Act, as we extend and amend it, must provide the power to act swiftly if sudden and unexpected events imperil the assurance of supplies for our consumers." |