[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 150 (Friday, October 29, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13543-S13544]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     AGRICULTURAL JOB OPPORTUNITY BENEFITS AND SECURITY ACT OF 1999

  Mr. SMITH of Oregon. Mr. President, I rise with Senators Graham, 
Craig, Cleland, McConnell, Coverdell, Mack, Cochran, Helms, Grams, 
Crapo, Bunning, and Voinovich to encourage support of S. 1814, the 
Agricultural Job Opportunity Benefits and Security Act of 1999.
  Our bill will reform the agricultural labor market, establish and 
maintain immigration control, provide a legal workforce for our 
farmers, and restore the dignity to the lives of thousands of 
farmworkers who have helped make the U.S. economy the powerhouse that 
it is today.
  I am sure you are aware of the problems that have arisen within 
American agriculture. For many years, employers in the agricultural 
industry have struggled to hire enough legal workers to harvest their 
produce and plants.
  As one of the most rapidly growing industries in this country, we can 
only expect the demand for agricultural labor jobs to continue to rise. 
When coupled with the lowest unemployment rates in decades, a crackdown 
on illegal immigration, and increased Social Security audits, the 
agriculture industry--and ultimately its consumers--face a crisis of 
devastating proportions.
  Contrary to some media accounts, these labor shortages and the need 
for a revised H-2A temporary foreign worker program exist around the 
country. Mr. President, my colleagues all agree with the General 
Accounting Office's (GAO) statement that while the labor shortage is 
not caused by one single problem, regional shortages stemming from 
region-specific problems do exist.
  We have a shortage of legal workers in this country and the GAO 
estimates that there are in excess of 600,000 self-identified illegal 
aliens currently employed in U.S. agriculture. Another survey done by 
the Department of Labor also revealed that more than 70 percent, or 
about 1 million, of those hired to work on U.S. farms are here 
illegally.
  Due to the highly sophisticated fraudulent documents in circulation 
and strict U.S. laws prohibiting employers from scrutinizing these 
documents too carefully, thousands of illegal workers have been 
unknowingly hired as a result. This situation leaves many agricultural 
employers vulnerable to potential labor shortfalls in the event of 
concentrated or targeted Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) 
enforcement efforts or Social Security Administration audits.
  Immigrants are also severely impacted when they must work as 
undocumented workers. These foreign workers risk their lives paying 
human ``coyotes'' $1,200 to be smuggled across the desert border in the 
trunk of a car to work in this country. Because of the risks these 
foreign workers face in coming here and the difficulty of returning if 
they leave for a visit home, many go for years without seeing their 
spouses and children, some never return home. These illegal workers are 
extremely vulnerable to these ``coyotes'' and other dark elements of 
society that prey upon them, prohibiting the basic human rights of 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
  A recent survey published by the William C. Velasquez Institute 
demonstrated that a vast majority of registered Latino voters support a 
new farmworker program. In addition to supporting higher wages and 
unionization for farmworkers, the overwhelming majority of registered 
Latino voters--76% in California and 67% in Texas--supported a program 
where ``illegal immigrant'' farmworkers were allowed to become 
permanent residents in exchange for several years of mandatory 
agricultural labor.
  This poll clearly demonstrates that the current farm labor system 
serves no one well. Farmworkers support changing an illegal system that 
victimizes them and their families.
  This issue is not new to Congress. Our government's H-2A agricultural 
guest worker program was designed in part to help solve the labor 
problems facing our farmers. Instead of helping, the H-2A program--the 
only legal temporary agricultural worker program in the United States--
it merely adds bureaucratic red tape and burdensome regulations to the 
growing crisis. And it is failing those who use it.
  The H-2A program is not practicable for the agriculture and 
horticulture industry because it is loaded with burdensome regulations, 
excessive paperwork, a bureaucratic certification process and untimely, 
inconsistent, and hostile decision-making by the U.S. Department of 
Labor. This program is over 50 years old.
  To illustrate, Mr. President, this is the application I filled out to 
run for the United States Senate. It is one page, front and back.
  This is the Department of Labor's 325-page handbook, from January 
1988, which attempts to guide employers through the H-2A program's 
confusing application process. The GAO itself found that this handbook 
is outdated, incomplete, and very confusing to the user.
  Even the December 1997 GAO report illustrated the burdensome H-2A 
process with which employers must comply in order to bring in legal, 
foreign workers. A grower must apply to multiple agencies to obtain 
just one H-2A worker. This process is further complicated by the 
multiple levels of government, redundant levels of oversight and 
conflicting administrative procedures and regulations. Also, as 
reported by the recent Department of Labor Inspector General, the H-2A 
program does not meet the interests of domestic workers because it does 
a poor job of placing domestic workers in agricultural jobs.
  We are looking for solutions to not only make it easier for employers 
to hire legal workers to harvest their crops, but also to ensure that 
U.S. workers find jobs and are treated fairly in the process.

  Our bill is a win-win-win for farmers, farmworkers, and immigration 
control. It reforms the agricultural labor market and establishes and 
maintains immigration control. It gives farmers the stability of a 
legal workforce and the certainty that the crops will be harvested in a 
timely manner. It gives farmworkers the ability to earn the right to 
legal status, avoid the risks of undocumented status and receive U.S. 
labor law protections. It addresses a status quo that persons on both 
sides of the issue agree is indefensible, but until now, has been too 
easy to ignore. It is a balanced bill that seeks both

[[Page S13544]]

short and long-term solutions to the crisis in farm labor.
  Our bill will allow farmworkers who have a proven history of 
agricultural employment to eventually adjust to legal status in this 
country. Serious agricultural workers who are willing to commit to work 
several years in agricultural employment will receive nonimmigrant 
status and the rights that go with it.
  If employment requirements are met, workers can eventually adjust to 
permanent resident status, allowing them to remain in the U.S. year-
round. Utilizing the skills of the existing farmworker workforce, a 
majority of whom are undocumented status in the United States, would 
reduce the number of temporary H-2A workers needed. It allows 
hardworking farmworkers seeking to better themselves and their families 
the opportunity to earn the right to legal status.
  At the same time, the current temporary farmworker program--called H-
2A--will be reformed to make it more responsive, affordable and usable 
by the average family farmer who needs temporary help to produce and 
harvest agricultural crops and commodities. The need and risks of 
illegal immigration are removed.
  Our bill provides a system or registry where our unemployed U.S. 
workers can go to find out about job openings on our U.S. farms. Any 
legal U.S. resident who wants to work in agriculture will get the 
absolute right of first refusal for any and all jobs that become 
available. After the Department of Labor determines that a shortage of 
domestic workers exists, farmers would be able to recruit adjusted 
workers. If a shortage of adjusted workers is found, farmers could then 
utilize H-2A workers. This ensures that employers hire workers already 
in the U.S. before recruiting foreign guest workers.
  Our bill also improves the conditions of the farm workers' lives and 
provide them the dignity they deserve. These needed benefits include 
providing a premium wage, providing housing and transportation 
benefits, guaranteeing basic workplace protections, and extending the 
Migrant and Seasonal Workers Protection Act to all workers.
  To add more protections for the health, safety, and security of 
farmworkers, our bill establishes a commission that would study 
problems with farmworker housing. Our bill also directs the Department 
of Labor and Department of Agriculture to study field sanitation, 
childcare and child labor violations, labor standards enforcement and 
to ultimately make recommendations for long-term changes and 
improvements.
  I am very concerned that workers are protected, but let's not forget 
that growers have been victimized by this process too. In order to feed 
their families--and yours--the growers need to harvest their crops on 
time, meet their payroll, and ultimately maintain their bottom line. 
Without achieving those things, farms go out of business and the jobs 
they create are lost along with them. So it is in all of our best 
interests--workers, growers, and consumers alike--that growers have the 
means by which to hire needed legal workers.
  While I don't have a crystal ball to predict the future of the 
indefensible status quo, I can tell you that we will have a major 
economic and social crisis on our U.S. farmlands if there is not an 
improvement over the current process.
  Let's not keep making fugitives out of farmworkers and felons out of 
farmers.
  I urge my fellow colleagues to join Senators Graham, Craig, Cleland, 
McConnell, Coverdell, Mack, Cochran, Helms, Grams, Crapo, Bunning, 
Voinovich, and me in support of this important bipartisan legislation.

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