Speech #970233855

That is also the goal of the administrations bill. It will answer the question "Who is responsible for the protections and duties available under the act?" with the answer. "He or she who provides the service or employs the workerfarm labor contractor or nothas the duty to protect the workers." Certainty will benefit all parties. Agricultural employers will be relieved of the excessive burdens of FLCRA and will for the first time be sure of their duties to migrant workers. Agricultural employees will. in turn. know who is responsible for their protections. by fixing the responsibility on those who ultimately benefit from their laborsthe agricultural employer. Unions. likewise. will be assured for the first time that they will not fall within the coverage of an everincreasing maze of conflicting definitions which characterize the current law. All of the problems of the migrant workers in this country will not disappear after this bill becomes law. Today. as always. exploitation. poor housing. and abuse all too often go hand in hand with the backbreaking work performed by the agricultural worker. As this bill is put into place. I will continue to use this subcommittees oversight authority to investigate the effect of these changes on the lives of the migrant worker and to look for ways to insure a better quality of life for these workers and their families. I remain concerned about another group of workers who perform the same services as those covered by this law. the temporary foreign workers brought into this country under the H2 worker program. The Judiciary Committee this morning will begin markup of the SimpsonMazzoli amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act. That bill. as passed by the Senate fails to address adequately the future of the labor protections found in current regulations. If we do not insure that those protections for both the foreign and domestic workers are retained. we will have opened up a "guest worker" program under a different name.