295. Editorial Note
Congress did not enact legislation during 1964 to extend the foreign import quotas of the Sugar Act, which were scheduled to expire on December 31. The administration had proposed a 6-month extension, which was approved by the Senate on September 30 as a rider to the tariff bill H.R. 12253, but which failed to gain the approval of the House Agriculture Committee on September 29. On October 19, 1964, Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman established sugar import quotas for individual countries during 1965 by administrative action.
In 1965 Congress enacted legislation extending the Sugar Act through December 31, 1975. H.R. 11135 (P.L. 89–331; 79 Stat. 1271), which was signed into law on November 8, set domestic production at 6,390,000 tons and foreign imports at 3,310,000 tons: 1,050,000 tons from the Philippines, with the rest divided among 32 countries. Cuba’s quota was reassigned to other countries as long as diplomatic relations with the United States remained suspended, and the President could withhold the quotas of other countries if he found it to be in the national interest.
Documentation on the Johnson administration’s position on sugar legislation is in Department of State, Central Files, INCO–SUGAR US; ibid., INCO–SUGAR 17 US; and Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Sugar Legislation, Boxes 45–46.