There is no one to care for them while their parents are toiling in the fields. so many of them work also. Being constantly on the move. the children cannot stay long enough in one place to receive an adequate education. Thirty percent of all migrant children have less than 8 years of education. 40 percent. less than 11 years. If they survive their early childhood they are virtually doomed to repeating the dismal life of their parents. The fact is that 17 percent of migrant workers today are functional illiterates. Half are under 25 years of age and onefourth of them are between 14 and 17. Because of their youth or lack of education. most migrant workers and their youngsters have no awareness or interest in the political process. They move from county to county. and from State to State. They have no representatives or senators in the State legislatures or in the U.S. Congress to whom they can turn for help. Theirs are the unheard voices of misery and despair. Unlike most other labor groups in our Nation agricultural migrant workers are totally lacking in either political or economic power. In contrast to the economic and political weakness of the migrant workers and their families stands the economic and political power of the agricultural growers and processors who purchase their labor. Further legislation by this Congress is necessary to attempt to equalize these two groups. In the past. only local remedies were sought. State and local governments and private organizations have in many instances acted to aid these people. However. because of the great number of migrant workers and because of their constant movement their plight is a national problem of concern to all Americans. While the Congress has enacted legislation to alleviate some of the problems afflicting these people. additional action must be taken to allow them and their children to share in the benefits of our society. First and foremost. migrant workers urgently require coverage under the National Labor Relations Act. They must have the right to utilize the collective bargaining process to improve their economic and social status as industrial workers have for more than 30 years. In many localities there are legal restrictions against providing public services to nonresidents. therefore. barring the migrant farmer and his family from most of the health and welfare services offered to other citizens. One worker at an Ohio camp had a child who was seriously ill. He was told by local welfare officials to take the child to a public clinic which was open only on Thursday and Friday. Unfortunately. the child was dying on Saturday. One of the most critical needs of the migrant agricultural worker and his family is for decent housing and sanitation. Programs must be developed to assist in the construction of adequate housing facilities for these workers and their dependents. The migrant worker faces unemployment with no reserve in the form of unemployment compensation which the industrial worker has long taken for granted. Our unemployment insurance laws must be amended to provide benefits for workers employed on large commercial farms. At the present time a farmworker is eligible for social security if he receives $150 in cash wages from his employer during the year or if he works for the same employer for cash wages for 20 days or more during the year. Because of their constant movement. short periods of employment. and low rate of compensation. most migrant workers do not meet the requirements to be eligible for social security benefits. Our social security law should be amended by reducing from $150 to $50 the amount which must be earned from a single employer each year by farmworkers. In that one act social security benefits would thereby be extended to 500.000 farmworkers. the great majority of them migrant laborers. Mr. President. while these proposals recognize the problems of migrant workers and. to some degree. will correct their wretched working and living conditions. they by no means completely solve the problem of bringing the living standard of these forgotten people to the level enjoyed by most other Americans. In this Congress. as in previous Congresses. leadership in this task has been undertaken by the distinguished junior Senator from New Jersey . I am proud to be cosponsor of legislative proposals which he has introduced to cure many of the ills afflicting migrant workers. If these proposals are enacted by Congress. we will have removed a system of virtual peonage from our society. In doing so America will once again prove that it is a nation where no one is forgotten. where the young have faith and their elders have hope.