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This report discusses the federal sugar program, which authorized by the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 seeks to ensure the viability of the U.S. sugar producing sector primarily by supporting the incomes of sugar beet and sugarcane producers and of those firms that process each crop into sugar.

The conference report on H.R. 1757, the Foreign Relations Authorization bill for FY1998-FY1999, will be debated in the Senate beginning April 24 with a vote expected April 28, 1998. On March 26, the House adopted the conference report (H.Rept. 105-432) on H.R. 1757; the bill authorizes a total of $926 million for payment of arrears to international organizations in exchange for U.N. and U.N. agency reforms. The House version of the bill did not address payment of the U.S. arrears or U.N. reforms. The conferees accepted virtually all the Senate language in Conference. The Conference version of the bill also contains unrelated House language restricting activities of foreign family planning organizations, which the President has threatened to veto. This linkage derailed passage of the bill in 1997.