[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 197 (Monday, December 19, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7283-S7287]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               ANDREW GOMER WILLIAMS POST OFFICE BUILDING

       A bill (H.R. 7514) to designate the facility of the United 
     States Postal Service located at 345 South Main Street in 
     Butler, Pennsylvania, as the ``Andrew Gomer Williams Post 
     Office Building'' was ordered to a third reading, was read 
     the third time, and passed.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.


                     Affordable and Secure Food Act

  Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, this weekend, families all across America 
will sit down in their dining rooms for a holiday meal, and they are 
going to have to pay more for that meal than they ever have before. 
They are going to have to pay more for bread and more for butter, 
potatoes, eggs, vegetables. Literally, almost everything that is going 
to be on America's tables this holiday season is going to be more 
expensive than it has ever been.
  Although there are several reasons for that phenomenon, somewhere at 
the very top is the profound labor shortage that exists in American 
agriculture. Today, America's farmers and ranchers are short more than 
100,000 workers all across this country to plant seeds, to pick 
berries, to raise cattle, and to do the hard, essential work of feeding 
this country.
  It is why growers all across America are banging down the doors of 
this Capitol, pleading with us to fix the broken H-2A system for 
farmers.
  It is obvious to everybody who has had anything to do with this 
system that it is completely broken. There is no argument that can be 
made that it is not. To start, the H-2A program is not even open to 
year-round jobs. That is just the beginning of the trouble. That is 
every dairy in America who has to milk their cows two or three times a 
day, including the holidays. It is

[[Page S7284]]

every mushroom grower, livestock producer, horse breeder that needs 
those year-round visas.
  The H-2A program is also hopelessly and embarrassingly outdated. To 
qualify for a visa, this ancient program requires farmers to put a 
physical advertisement in a local newspaper, if there is a local 
newspaper, if they can find one. They can't advertise online. That is 
prohibited in the year 2022.
  And you have to reapply for the H-2A visa every single year, which is 
an incredible burden on farmers and on farm workers. It is the last 
thing they need.
  And, finally, the existing program does nothing to protect farmers 
from dramatic spikes in labor costs from year to year. They can't plan 
for the future. They have no idea what kind of uncertainty they are 
going to have to deal with when it comes to wages.
  I am thinking of farmers like Bruce Talbott, who grows peaches in 
Palisade, CO. The labor shortage hurts Bruce in two ways: One, he 
doesn't have enough people to pick everything he grows, so he is forced 
to leave money on the table every single year; and, second, this labor 
shortage is driving up labor costs, which are now 80 percent of the 
total costs of his operation. And we are seeing this all over the 
country.
  You see it right here: H-2A wages up almost 50 percent in the last 10 
years. By the way, this is all wages down here. And this is what has 
happened to wages in farming and ranching in this country. It has grown 
so much faster than the rest of the workforce, and it is pushing family 
farms and ranches to the edge of a cliff, and, sadly, a lot of them are 
going over that cliff or considering moving their operations from the 
United States to Mexico.
  Since 2007, America has lost 190,000 farms, almost all of them small 
family farms. That is nearly 10 percent of the farms in this country, 
and some industries, like dairy, have been hit even harder. Between 
2003 and 2020, the number of dairy farms in America fell by over half, 
by 55 percent.
  That is not just bad for dairy farms. It is bad for the communities 
that they are in and that they support, and it is bad for this country. 
If we don't deal with this, this country is on track, believe it or 
not, to become dependent on foreign food imports.
  You can see it here. This is the export line, and here is the 
projected import line. We are right at the point where we could be a 
net importer of food for the first time in my lifetime, maybe the first 
time in forever. I don't know.
  I don't want us to rely on other nations to feed America. We have the 
most productive agriculture sector in the world. And yet, because of 
this labor problem, we are going to accept the idea that we should be a 
net importer of food from other countries? That is terrible for our 
economic security, for our food security, and, I would argue, for our 
national security as well.
  Just on the economic point, Colorado's agriculture generates over $40 
billion a year for our State's economy. Nationwide, there are nearly 20 
million jobs in food and agriculture-related industries. That is 1 in 
every 10 jobs in this country. And over $1 trillion of our GDP is 
agriculture.
  And I think people--especially people who don't work in agriculture, 
don't think about agriculture, don't live in maybe a rural area--they 
tend to forget that literally every single sector of our economy 
depends on agriculture. You can't have an economy without food. There 
has never been one.
  So when we talk about the crisis in American agriculture that I am 
here on this floor to address today, we have to understand that the 
stakes could not be higher. At the same time we have that issue, there 
are hundreds of thousands of undocumented farm workers living in the 
shadows in this country. These men and women are breaking their backs 
every single day to feed America--women like Lulu Guerrero, who lives 
in Weld County, CO.
  She gets up at 3 o'clock in the morning every single morning to plant 
crops like watermelons and tomatoes and pumpkins. She has been doing 
that for 20 years. I have met people in my State who have been doing it 
for 30 years, who have been doing it for 40 years--with no status, with 
no protections, with no legal recourse if somebody tries to take 
advantage of them--many of them with U.S. citizens who are their 
children, people who can't go back and forth to see their relatives 
south of the border when somebody dies.
  This has been going on for decades, and we have ignored this problem 
in part because the food keeps showing up somehow, miraculously, in our 
grocery stores, as if somebody waved a wand to put it there.
  These workers have broken their backs to support their families, to 
support the United States of America, to make sure that we are fed. The 
least we can do for our own country is to bring them out of the shadows 
of the law.
  The status quo is terrible for workers, it is terrible for businesses 
and farms, and it is terrible for American families who have seen their 
grocery bills go through the roof.
  Look at this. I am not saying all of that is the labor shortage, but 
a huge amount of that is the labor shortage. In the last year alone, 
grocery prices have shot up about 12 percent--faster than at any time 
in 40 years, as you can see from this slide.
  And it is everything. I won't read all of these, but it is 
everything. The price of apples is up 7 percent. The price of milk is 
up 15 percent. And I guarantee you that is as a result of people unable 
to find people to do that work. And eggs are up almost 50 percent.
  These aren't nice to have. None of these are nice to have for the 
American people. These are essential to a well-balanced meal to a 
family being able to feed itself in America. That is why Congress has 
to finally fix this H-2A program, and we have the opportunity to do it.
  There is good news. We have a plan to fix it, the Affordable and 
Secure Food Act. Our proposal builds on legislation. This is an 
important point. You know, sometimes people over here blame the House 
of Representatives for not getting done what needs to get done for this 
country. In this case, they have passed this bill twice--or a version 
of this bill twice--in a bipartisan fashion. There were Republican 
Members of Congress over here last week imploring Republican Members of 
the Senate to please pass this bill, which from the grower's 
perspective, by the way, is an improvement over the bill that passed in 
the House.
  The Farm Workers Union and many of the growers in this country have 
come together to support this legislation, and there is a good reason 
why it had bipartisan support in the House. And now, from the 
perspective of the other side of the aisle, in many ways, it is 
actually a better bill. Our bill opens the H-2A program to year-round 
jobs for the first time ever, and that is going to mean dairy farmers 
and mushroom growers can finally access the labor that they need, that 
they can't access today.
  It creates wage certainty for farmers, saving them $23 billion over 
the next 12 years. I want to say that again: $23 billion over the next 
12 years, because now people are going to know what the wage increases 
are going to look like. They are going to be predictable. They have 
been agreed to. And that results in the savings of $23 billion. That is 
$2 billion more over that period of time than the savings that were 
achieved in the House bill for growers.

  It requires E-Verify for farm workers nationwide. That is going to 
help with the chaos at the border because people are now going to know 
that they are not going to be able to come here and work illegally or 
in an undocumented fashion in agriculture. So they will be less likely 
to want to come.
  And, finally, the bill establishes a pathway for undocumented farm 
workers to apply for a green card after they have worked in agriculture 
for at least a decade, passed a background check, and paid a penalty.
  That is not amnesty. It is a recognition that anybody who has spent a 
decade breaking their back to feed America should have the opportunity 
to apply for lawful status.
  Are we really going to accept as a definitional matter for this 
country that we want fields filled with indentured servants in the 
United States of America? Is that really where we are as a nation?
  I don't think so. That is not what people in Colorado believe. No 
matter what party they are in, they don't believe that. They think we 
should fix this problem. They know how hard-

[[Page S7285]]

working the people are who are working in our fields and on our ranches 
and at our dairies.
  And that is why this bill is broadly supported not just in Colorado 
but all across the country--by farmers and labor, by immigration 
advocates, by businesses, by the American people. The vast majority of 
the American people know we need to fix this.
  And this morning--this isn't meant for anybody to read; I will get to 
that in a moment--but over 240 groups from all across America, 
including from New Mexico and from Colorado, sent a letter supporting 
this bill. And I am not going to read all--I am tempted to read all 
240, and there isn't anybody here tonight. But let me just give you a 
sense of the breadth and the depth of the support of this bill.
  The signers of this bill include the International Fresh Produce 
Association, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, the National 
Milk Producers Federation, the National Farmers Union, the National 
Thoroughbred Racing Association, the American Honey Producers 
Association, the American Mushroom Institute, the American Sugarbeet 
Growers Association, the California Apple Commission, the California 
Association of Winegrape Growers, the Colorado Potato Legislative 
Association.
  Let me just tell you how hard it is for our potato producers in 
Colorado to deliver that incredible crop when we finally have created a 
situation where Mexico has to import our potatoes and can't just keep 
them out, which is what they have been doing for years and years and 
years, but they can't find folks to do the work. With the rise in input 
costs that farmers and ranchers have to deal with, with the drought 
that the Colorado potato growers are dealing with in the San Luis 
Valley that I know the Presiding Officer knows so well--you know, you 
would think that the least we could do is solve a problem that could be 
solved. That is a major headache for them and for their colleagues all 
across the country--like the Food Producers of Idaho, the Georgia 
Blueberry Commission, the Idaho Hay and Forage Association, Land 
O'Lakes, the Lone Star Milk Producers, the Maine Potato Board, the 
Michigan Nursery & Landscape Association, the National Association of 
State Departments of Agriculture.
  As I read this list, do you know the one thing these people don't 
have in common? They are not Democrats or Republicans. They are just 
trying to deliver agricultural products to the American people. That is 
all they are trying to do. And they live in red States, and they live 
in blue States. They live all over the United States of America.
  The National Pecan Federation, the New York Apple Association, the 
North Carolina Potato Association, the Ohio Dairy Producers 
Association, the Pennsylvania Vegetable Growers Association, Premium 
Peanut, the Society of American Florists, the National Asparagus 
Council, the United Dairy Farmers of Florida, the Utah Tart Cherry 
Marketing Board, the Virginia Apple Growers Association, the Washington 
State Tree Fruit Association, the Western Growers--and let me say 
something about the Western Growers.
  In 2013, I had the privilege of being part of the Gang of 8 that 
negotiated the comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed this 
floor with 68 votes. It was led on the Republican side by John McCain 
and by Jeff Flake and Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham. We had four 
Democrats on our side. And, I have to say, in the 14 years I have been 
in this place, that was the best work we have done as a body. We dealt 
with this tough issue of immigration, and we dealt with all aspects of 
it--11 million people who were undocumented had the chance to earn a 
tough but fair pathway to citizenship in this country and come out of 
the shadows.
  We dealt with all the visa issues that have been driving the country 
crazy all this year--business visas and agriculture visas.
  I negotiated the agriculture provisions of this bill with Senator 
Rubio and Senator Feinstein and Senator Hatch.
  And we had the most progressive Dream Act that had ever been 
conceived, much less voted on, as part of that bill.
  It also had $40 billion border security in it. People forget that 
part. Every single Democrat voted for a bill that had $40 billion of 
border security. That is a heck of a lot more money than Donald Trump 
ever spent to build his wall--that medieval device.
  That $40 billion, which was a bipartisan effort, again, was meant to 
spend--was meant to spend the money on 21st-century technology so we 
could see every inch of the border so border crossings could actually 
be much better policed than they are today.
  I will come back to this later in the speech, but I am not somebody 
who believes we should have a border that is not secure. I believe we 
should have a secure border. I think we should. I think the American 
people expect that we will. And I came to this floor--I think it was in 
May--to say that I thought it was wrong for the Biden administration to 
lift title 42 without a plan to address the border, and we are seeing 
the effects of that, I think, today.
  That shouldn't be an excuse for making lives more miserable for 
people working in American agriculture. It shouldn't be an excuse for 
driving food prices up for families. It shouldn't be an excuse for 
compromising our economic independence, our food security, and our 
national security.
  We have in front of us a negotiated agreement that passed the House 
of Representatives with a bipartisan vote. We have an agreement that 
has been negotiated over here that is more generous to producers than 
the one that passed the House of Representatives, and it has all this 
support from all these people all over the country. I am not going to 
read every single one of these names, but you get the idea. These are 
people who probably, I would guess--many of them probably agree on 
nothing politically, but they agree on this. They agree on this. Part 
of that is because the situation they are confronting is so dire, and 
part of it is because they have helped produce a good piece of 
legislation that should get its chance.
  (Mr. SCHATZ assumed the Chair.)
  (Mr. HEINRICH assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the letter with all these 
names be printed in the Record so I can spare you listening to all the 
names.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

     December 16, 2022.
     Hon. Chuck Schumer,
     Majority Leader.
     Hon. Mitch McConnell,
     Minority Leader.
       Dear Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell: 
     The undersigned agricultural organizations urge the Senate to 
     support and pass Sen. Bennet's legislation, the Affordable 
     and Secure Food Act by the end of the year to address the 
     workforce crisis threatening farms across the United States. 
     The ongoing farm workforce crisis is hindering agricultural 
     production and contributing to food price inflation. We must 
     address this now, so our producers can continue to grow, 
     feed, clothe, and fuel our nation.
       Sen. Bennets legislation provides stability for our 
     existing workers and makes key reforms to the H-2A program, 
     the visa program producers use to hire legal temporary 
     workers to supplement the available U.S. workforce. While the 
     bill is not perfect, it provides a significant step forward 
     by providing access to guest workers for many sectors in the 
     industry and will account for real cost savings for farmers 
     and consumers across the country. The House has passed 
     legislation on this issue, and it is now time for the Senate 
     to act before the end of the year. Without immediate action 
     by the Senate, the federal government's outdated policies, 
     insufficient domestic workforce, and a challenging guest 
     worker program are forcing many farmers to consider whether 
     they can continue in labor-intensive agriculture.
       The country cannot afford for the Senate to miss this 
     opportunity to provide stability to both farmers and 
     farmworkers. We implore the Senate to pass legislation to 
     address our agricultural workforce challenges and ease 
     inflationary pressure on food costs for all Americans.
           Sincerely,
       Agricultural Council of California; Agri-Mark, Inc.; 
     Agtegra Cooperative; Alsum Farms & Produce, Inc; Amcot; 
     American AgCredit; American Crystal Sugar Company; American 
     Honey Producers Association; American Mushroom Institute; 
     American Sugarbeet Growers Association; AmericanHort; Andrew 
     & Williamson Fresh Produce; Andrew & Williamson Fresh 
     Produce; Applewood Fresh Growers, LLC; Arizona Dairy 
     Producers Trade Association; Arizona Nursery Association; 
     Associated Milk Producers Inc.; Bay Cities Produce, Inc.; 
     Bennett Berry Farm LLC; Blueberry Bunch Farm LLC;
       Bobalu LLC; Bongards' Creameries; Brantley County 
     Blueberries, LLC; Brooks

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     Tropicals, LLC; Brooks Tropicals, LLC.; Brookside Farms, LLC; 
     Calavo Growers, Inc.; California Apple Commission; California 
     Association of Winegrape Growers; California Blueberry 
     Association; California Blueberry Commission; California 
     Canning Peach Association; California Citrus Mutual; 
     California Dairies, Inc.; California Dairy Campaign; 
     California Farm Bureau; California Fresh Fruit Association; 
     California Olive Oil Council; California Walnut Commission; 
     California Wild Rice Advisory Board.
       Capital City Fruit, Co.; Carolinas Cotton Growers; Cayuga 
     Marketing; Center for Dairy Excellence (Pennsylvania); 
     Central Valley Ag; Ceres Solutions; Christopher Ranch LLC; 
     CHS, Inc.; Co-Alliance Cooperative, Inc.; CoBank; Coconut 
     King; Colorado Dairy Farmers; Colorado Fruit & Vegetable 
     Growers Association; Colorado Nursery & Greenhouse 
     Association; Colorado Potato Legislative Association; Compeer 
     Financial; Cooperative Milk Producers Association; 
     Cornerstone Ag Enterprises; CropLife America; Crunch Pak.
       DaCosta Blueberry Farms Inc; Dairy Farmers of America, 
     Inc.; Dairy Producers of New Mexico; Dan Graiff Farms LLC; 
     DeGrandchamp Farms Inc.; Delta Council; DNO Produce; Domex 
     Superfresh Growers; Dosner Organic Farms; Driscoll's; Duncan 
     Family Farms; Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative; Ellsworth 
     Cooperative Creamery; Empire State Potato Growers; Farm 
     Credit East; Farm Credit Services of America-IA, NE, SD, WY; 
     FarmFirst Dairy Cooperative; Firestone Pacific Foods; First 
     District Association; Florida Citrus Mutual.
       Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association; Florida Nursery, 
     Growers & Landscape Association; Food Producers of Idaho; 
     Foremost Farms USA; Frantz Nursery; Fresh Texas; Frontier 
     Farm Credit-KS; Fruit Growers Supply; Georgia Blueberry 
     Commission; Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association; 
     Georgia Green Industry Association; Georgia Milk Producers, 
     Inc.; Girardin's Gardens, LLC; Goin's Blueberry Lane; 
     GreenStone Farm Credit Services; Grimmway Farms; Gulf Citrus 
     Growers Association; Holthouse Farms of Ohio, nc.; Idaho 
     Alfalfa and Clover Seed Growers Association; Idaho Apple 
     Commission.
       Idaho Cherry Commission; Idaho Dairymen's Association; 
     Idaho Hay and Forage Association; Idaho Honey Industry 
     Association; Idaho Hop Growers Association; Idaho Oilseed 
     Commission; Idaho Onion Growers Association; Idaho Potato 
     Commission; Idaho-Oregon Fruit and Vegetable Association; 
     IFCO Systems; Illinois Green Industry Association; Indiana 
     Dairy Producers; Interfresh; International Dairy Foods 
     Association; International Fresh Produce Association; Iowa 
     Institute for Cooperatives; Iowa State Dairy Association; JEC 
     Farms, LLC.; Joe Produce, LLC; Joseph Bezon & Son.
       JR's Berry Farms; K&C Farms; Kansas Livestock Association; 
     Kansas Nursery and Landscape Association; Kentucky Dairy 
     Development Council; Kevin Eason Farms; Land O'Lakes, Inc.; 
     Legacy Labor, Inc.; Leitz Farms LLC; Little Bear Produce; 
     Lone Star Milk Producers; Mack Farms inc; Maine Dairy 
     Industry Association; Maine Potato Board; Malheur County 
     Onion Growers Association; Maryland & Virginia Milk Producers 
     Cooperative Association; Mastronardi Produce-USA; MBG 
     Marketing; MD Basciani & Sons, Inc.; Meyer Farms.
       Michigan Apple Association; Michigan Asparagus; Michigan 
     Freeze Pack; Michigan Milk Producers Association; Michigan 
     Nursery & Landscape Association; Michigan State Horticultural 
     Society; Michigan Vegetable Council; Midwest Apple 
     Improvement Association (MAIA); Midwest Dairy Farms; Midwest 
     Groundcovers; Midwest Trading Horticultural Supplies; Miles 
     Berry Farm. Milk Producers Council; Milk Producers of Idaho; 
     Minnesota Milk Producers Association; MKC (Mid-Kansas 
     Cooperative); Mount Joy Farmers Cooperative Association; 
     Nardelli Bros. Inc.; National All-Jersey; National 
     Association of State Departments of Agriculture.
       National Council of Farmer Cooperatives; National Farmers 
     Union; National Milk Producers Federation; National Pecan 
     Federation; National Potato Council; Nebraska Cooperative 
     Council; New Day Berry Farms LLC; New York Apple Association; 
     New York Apple Growers; New York Farm Bureau; New York State 
     Flower Industries; New York State Horticultural Society; 
     Nezperce Prairie Grass Growers Assn.; North American 
     Blueberry Council; North Bay Produce, Inc.; North Carolina 
     Dairy Producers Association; North Carolina Potato 
     Association; Northeast Dairy Producers Association; Northland 
     Potato Growers Association; Northwest Dairy Association/
     Darigold.
       Northwest Farm Credit Services; Northwest Horticultural 
     Council; NW Ag Cooperative Council; Ohio Dairy Producers 
     Association; Ohio Produce Growers and Marketing Association; 
     Olive Growers Council of California; Oneida-Madison Milk 
     Producers Cooperative Association Oregon Dairy Farmers 
     Association; Oregon Potato Commission; OZBLU USA LLac; 
     Packers Canning dba Honee Bear Canning; Peak Foods LLC; 
     Pennsylvania Apple Program; Pennsylvania Cooperative Potato 
     Growers; Pennsylvania Vegetable Growers Association; Peterson 
     Farms, Inc.; Plains Cotton Cooperative Association; Potato 
     Growers of Michigan, Inc.; Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc.; Premium 
     Peanut.
       Produce Alliance LLC; Professional Dairy Managers of 
     Pennsylvania; S. Katzman Produce; Scioto Cooperative Milk 
     Producers' Association; Society of American Florists; South 
     Dakota Association of Cooperatives; South Dakota Dairy 
     Producers; South East Dairy Farmers Association; Southeast 
     Milk, Inc.; Southern Idaho Potato Cooperative, Inc.; Sunkist 
     Growers; Sunmaid Growers of California; Sunsweet Growers 
     Inc.; Suwannee Creek Berries llc; Texas Agricultural 
     Cooperative Council; Texas Association of Dairymen; Texas 
     International Produce Association; The Crews Farm, LLC.; The 
     National Asparagus Council; The San Francisco Wholesale 
     Produce Market.
       Tillamook County Creamery Association; Tops Markets; U.S. 
     Apple Association; U.S. Beet Sugar Association; United Dairy 
     Farmers of Florida, Inc.; United Dairymen of Arizona; United 
     Egg Producers; United Potato Growers of America; Upstate 
     Niagara Cooperative, Inc.; US Tobacco Cooperative; Utah Apple 
     Marketing board; Utah Horticulture Association; Utah Tart 
     Cherry Marketing board; Vidalia Onion Business Council; 
     Village Farms; Virginia Apple Growers Association; W.P. Rawl 
     & Sons; Walker Berry Brothers; Washington State Dairy 
     Federation; Washington State Potato Commission.
       Washington State Tree Fruit Association; Western Growers; 
     Western States Dairy Producers Association; Westfalia Fruit 
     US; Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Growers Association; Wish 
     Farms.

  Mr. BENNET. I will end with this. There is a vegetable farmer in 
Brighton, CO, whom I have known for many, many years. His name is 
Robert Sakata. His dad started Sakata Farms in 1944 after he was 
released from a Japanese-American internment camp, where he was 
interned during World War II. For almost 80 years, Sakata Farms has 
been a critical ingredient of our Colorado economy--a staple of 
Colorado, to put it in food terms, but when Robert visited my office in 
the last couple of years, he handed me fliers advertising his equipment 
for sale.
  I said: Robert, why are you selling your implements? Why are you 
doing that?
  He loves what he does. He is so passionate about what he does. He is 
so passionate about the people who work side by side with him to 
produce incredible fruits and vegetables in Colorado. But he told me 
that he was selling because he didn't have enough labor to harvest his 
vegetable crop. Today, they no longer grow vegetables at Sakata Farms; 
they only grow row crops. Is that the future we want for American 
agriculture? It is not what we want in Colorado.
  I have heard stories like that, like Robert Sakata's story, all over 
my State and all over this country for the last decade. We don't have 
to accept the loss of the next 10 percent of America's family farms. We 
don't have to accept hundreds of thousands of people living in the 
shadows when they work every single day. They are breaking their 
backs--I don't use that term lightly--working in some of the worst 
conditions that there are to work in to feed the American people, to 
give us economic security and food security and provide for our 
national security.
  We shouldn't accept crushing food prices for families just because 
this Congress can't reform an antiquated H-2A program. We can do 
something about it this week before we go home, with this proposal.
  Sometimes the politics of an issue like this seems so hard that you 
are defeated on it before you even get started. That has not been the 
case with this coalition of people from all over America. They have all 
they can contend with every single day.
  As I said, with rising input costs, with the trade issues that we 
have been dealing with, they have every reason in the world not to 
spend a moment trying to actually pass this piece of legislation, but 
it is so important because this labor issue is so critical to the 
future of American agriculture, and they know it, and they have a sense 
of urgency about it. They want us to overcome our fears and our 
political concerns, to come together and do what the House of 
Representatives did, which is pass a bipartisan bill. I guarantee you, 
if we do that, if we do that here in this Chamber, when people go home, 
what they are going to hear is this: Thank you. Thank you for listening 
to us. Thank you for respecting our work in American agriculture. And 
thank you for standing up for our country during a difficult economic 
moment in world history.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHATZ. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.

[[Page S7287]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Smith). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________