[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 21389-21391]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         AGRICULTURAL EMERGENCY

  Mrs. BOXER. Well, Mr. President, we have a very narrow bill before 
us, the border fence bill, which we cannot broaden; and that is why I 
opposed cloture on that bill. I do not oppose building a fence where 
you need to do it, where the border is porous. I do not have a problem 
with that. What I have a problem with is this narrow approach to the 
immigration issue which precludes us from truly fixing our problems.
  We are ignoring a lot of problems in this Congress, but I will tell 
you what is emerging as an enormous problem, and that is, the problem 
that farms are having all across this country because we have neglected 
to take care of the issue of farm labor.
  In California, our farm community is in serious trouble. I sat with 
my dairy folks, my ranchers, my farmers. We grow over 80 crops in our 
State. Senator Feinstein was eloquent in laying out how huge an 
industry it is. These are folks who never come to me with fear in their 
eyes. They are frightened because their crops are dying on the vine and 
in the fields across the State of California, and from what I have 
heard, in other States as well.
  This is tragic for us. We could lose these farmers. We could lose 
agriculture. And we have a chance--Senator Craig, Senator Feinstein, 
and I, and others, have teamed up and said: Let's use this opportunity 
to broaden our approach. Senator Kennedy, of course, was the first to 
craft a comprehensive piece of legislation, which we voted out of here.
  Now, I do not understand--I spoke with Senator Frist, and he seemed 
to acknowledge there is a problem--why we cannot permit as part of this 
fence bill a very simple emergency piece of legislation that will 
sunset but just says let's make sure our agriculture community can 
survive, can continue.
  Let me show you a photograph of one of my constituents looking at her 
crop of pears, which is rotting on the ground. You look at her face, 
and you see what this means to her.

[[Page 21390]]

  Let me tell you what it means to the people of our Nation. We export 
these fruits and vegetables all throughout the Nation and, of course, 
throughout the world. It is going to mean higher prices, that decreased 
availability of products. But this Congress will not let us address 
this issue.
  To the Republican leadership, I beg you one more time--and even some 
in your own party are begging you--we have to do more than one thing at 
a time. You have to take the problem and solve it. So this whole notion 
of we will take care of the fence first, and in a few years we will 
take care of something else--let me tell you, these farmers cannot 
last. They are facing economic disaster.
  As I said before, this is not a Democratic or Republican issue. I can 
assure you that the people who have come to see me are part of the 
Republican base. They are perplexed. They do not understand it. They 
are the owners, entrepreneurs, the family farmers, the large farmers, 
and they have come together with labor. It was intense to get the two 
sides together. It started in the late nineties.
  I remember when Senators Craig and Kennedy came with great excitement 
and said that we have a deal between labor and management, everyone 
supports AgJobs. We went out to the floor and we have more than 60 
votes for this. Yet because of the maneuvers on the floor by the 
Republican leadership, we cannot offer the AgJobs bill. No one can 
explain it to me.
  Republicans are facing the charge of being a do-nothing Congress. We 
want to do something for our farmers. We want to help you. Let's please 
take care of our farmers. Take care of this woman who is looking at her 
whole life disappear in front of her because she doesn't have enough 
labor to pick these pears.
  The United Fresh Produce Association wrote Senator Frist a letter. It 
has a headline that I have never seen in a letter:

       Farmers to Congress: Support a Safe and Secure American 
     Food Supply, Pass an Immigration Fix Before the Election of 
     2006.

  These are people who don't really get that involved in politics, but 
they get it. They know an election is coming, and they are sending us a 
message to fix this. Further, they say:

       A safe and domestic food supply is a national priority at 
     risk. With real labor shortages emerging, agriculture needs 
     legislative relief now. The choice is simple: Import needed 
     labor, or import our food.

  What they are saying is, at the end of the day, we will not have a 
safe, secure, and healthy food supply. This is not the time, it seems 
to me, that we want to lose that. With all of the talk about 
terrorism--and we all fear it--we want a safe food supply. We don't 
want to have to depend on food coming in from other places. We want to 
depend on our farmers and their great history and their great legacy.
  We also will lose three to four American jobs for every farm worker 
job. Mr. President, I will say that again. We will lose three to four 
American jobs for every farm worker job.
  They say:

       Any solution must recognize agriculture's uniqueness--
     perishable crops and products, rural nature, significant 
     seasonality, and nature of the work.

  Building a fence is not going to help our people. I am not against 
it; I voted for it. It is not a problem to me to build a fence. But 
don't come out here and say: Aren't we great and doing something; we 
are building a fence and now everything is fine. That is hogwash.
  We must pass an AgJOBS bill, and we can do it today. Our farmers and 
our ranchers are begging us to do it. They need a solution. Our farm 
economy in some areas is becoming paralyzed. I showed you Toni Skully. 
They were unable to harvest 35 percent of their crop. This is what is 
happening all over California. I have been told it is also happening to 
my lemon growers in San Diego. They are experiencing a 15- to 20-
percent harvest loss. Avocado farmers in Ventura County are worried 
about workers for the December planting season. Tree fruit growers in 
Fresno County have seen the labor force decrease by as much as 50 
percent. In Sonoma, as many as 17,000 seasonal farm workers have not 
returned to work in the fields.
  Again, I don't have a problem with the fence. We need to build it 
where we have a porous border. But that doesn't help our people.
  Agriculture is a $239 billion-a-year industry, and if we refuse to 
provide a solution to labor shortages now, we are jeopardizing our 
domestic economy and our foreign export market. We are driving up 
production costs that get passed on to consumers. Our consumers are 
already having trouble with health care costs, with gasoline costs, 
with college tuition--oh, and now they are going to have problems 
putting food on the table.
  This is not the time to turn away from our farmers. All of this is 
happening for absolutely no reason. There is no problem in allowing us 
to proceed with this amendment to offer AgJOBS. I have been on the 
AgJOBS bill, probably since 2000, 2001, and we continue to have strong 
support for it. But, again, because this Republican Congress can, 
apparently, only do one thing at a time, when it comes to immigration, 
we are precluded from offering this amendment.
  Mr. President, my farmers are proud, as are yours. My ranchers and my 
dairy families are proud. They don't ask for much. But when they came 
to meet with me--and they have come several times--and I saw the look 
on their faces.
  I said: What is it?
  They finally said: You have to act.
  I said: The fence bill is coming up.
  They said: Maybe that is a chance now. We can get AgJOBS attached to 
it.
  I went to Senator Kennedy, and I said to him at a caucus luncheon: 
They are bringing up the fence bill, so why don't we move forward?
  He said: I am working on it, and I hope we can have a comprehensive 
approach. A lot of people care about this.
  Apparently, there are not enough Republican leaders who care about it 
because we are being told there won't be an amendment for AgJOBS. This 
is certainly a place where Democrats and Republicans should come 
together. I simply don't understand why they allow our farmers to 
suffer, to worry, to wonder, to lose money, and then they have to come 
to us and ask for emergency help. They don't want emergency help.
  AgJOBS is supported by United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, 
the Agricultural Coalition for Immigration Reform, the National Council 
of Agricultural Employers, the Western United Dairymen, the California 
Grape and Tree Fruit League, California Citrus Mutual, the California 
Strawberry Commission, the California Association of Wine-Grape 
Growers, and the California Canning Peach Association.
  The AgJOBS bill has pulled together both the owners and the workers. 
I thank Senators Craig and Kennedy for doing that. All they need is for 
us to do our job. The Senate is choosing to neglect a major sector of 
our Nation's economy--a bill supported by 62 Senators.
  Again, the farm community has been a traditional Republican 
stronghold. So this isn't even good politics. I say to my friends it is 
bad politics, and it is bad policy. At the end of the day, we can still 
insist that Senator Frist allow us to offer the Craig-Kennedy-
Feinstein-Boxer measure, and all of us who care about this bill have a 
chance to do it. We don't want lip-service. We don't want calming talk. 
We want action. We want action now. We want to help the farmers, the 
consumers, the workers.
  We don't want to see another industry fall apart right beneath our 
noses. We have enough problems going on with people losing their health 
care, they cannot afford college, and the housing market is in a 
precarious situation. Why would we not come together and take care of 
this important constituency?
  In closing, a headline from last Friday's New York Times reads:

       Pickers Are Few, and Growers Blame Congress

  And they should blame Congress. Pretty soon it will be consumers 
blaming Congress, and they should. So let's get our act together. Let's 
get it done. Thank you very much.

[[Page 21391]]

  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington is recognized.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, under the unanimous consent, the Senator 
from Idaho is next, but he is not on the Senate floor. I ask unanimous 
consent that I may proceed next in line.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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