Speaker. today I have introduced a bill to amend the Interstate Commerce Act to regulate interstate transportation of migratory farm labor. One of the abuses frequently accompanying the Interstate recruitment of workers is the transportation of farm workers for long distances by private motor carriers under conditions so crowded as to be unsafe. unhealthful. and insanitary. The Presidents Committee on Migratory Labor has prepared model regulations for recommended adoption by the States to control the intrastate transportation of migrant farmworkers. There is no existing authority. however. for the adoption of similar regulations designed to control the interstate transportation of workers by private carriers. The transportation of migrant workers by their employers. or by labor contractors engaged in the business of recruiting and furnishing workers and who furnish transportation as an incident to their main business of recruiting workers. is construed to be the private carriage of passengers and not subject to regulation under the Interstate Commerce Act. This is true whether the worker pays a fee for the transportation or not. The draft bill would amend the Interstate Commerce Act so as to give the Interstate Commerce Commission authority to regulate the equipment and operation of vehicles used in interstate transportation of migrant farmworkers. As in. the case of common carriers and others presently subject to ICC control. the bill does not set forth specific standards to be observed but leaves such matters to the promulgation of regulations by the Commission. The definition of a "carrier of migrant workers by motor vehicle" is modeled after the definition of a "private carrier" in the regulations proposed by the Presidents Committee on Migratory Labor. The definition of the term "migrant worker" in the draft bill is based on the concept of workers employed in agriculture under the Mexican farm labor program. In addition to granting the Commission authority to act. the draft bill would exclude transportation of migrant workers from the scope of any exemption contained in section 203 (b) of part II of the Interstate Commerce Act. However. the bill would not apply to workers transporting their immediate families or to the transportation of migrant workers in passenger automobiles or station wagons. The limitation of the definition of a "carrier of migrant workers" to one who transports three or more passengers is designed to prevent the bills application to a truck operator who transports one or two neighbors or an occasional hitchhiker in the cab of his truck. Section 3 of the bill would preserve existing overtime benefits under the Fair Labor Standards Act for employees made subject by the bill to the Commissions power to establish qualifications and maximum hours of service.