Speech #1040203616

But I do think we have to be realistic that if we want to keep a competitive agricultural industry. these temporary. seasonal Jobs are never going to make a person a millionaire. these jobs are always going to involve tough. physical labor. and they most likely arent going to be filled by outofwork engineers. So it seems to make sense to me that because we want our agricultural industry to be the most competitive in the world. that if and when there Is a labor shortage of people who are willing and able to do temporary. seasonal work. there should be an effective way for the farmer to get help to harvest the crop. I dont want to have to scramble while the food rots in the field to fix the H2A Program. Lets straighten it out now. Hopefully. well never have to use itbut if we do. lets have something that is usable. Third. if and when a farmer uses the H2A Program. the program should not directly or indirectly be misused to displace U.S. agricultural workers. or to make U.S. workers worse off. There are a lot of stories about misuse of the H2A Program -I find these appalling. I do not think that the H2A Program should be used as a conduit for cheap foreign labor. as a substitute for already available American workers. It seems to me that everyone admits that there are some abusive employers. There are employers who have manipulated the piece rates to pay people lower wages. There are employers who. once they get into the H2A Program. never again look for American labor. I think that this program needs careful scrutiny to ensure that workers are treated fairlythat they get a fair wage for a fair days work. that they have places to live and reasonable benefits. and that we dont bring in foreign workers to the detriment of American workers here. Many of the problems I hear about with the H2A Program from farmworker advocates seem to stem from a lack of enforcement in the program. Perhaps this is something that we also need to look atwhat mechanism can make sure that this program is enforceable. Fourth. finally. I believe that it is important that we do not undermine the intent of this bill to ensure that we stop the flood of illegal immigrants coming across the border. We would ask GAO to look at the extent to which this program might cause an increase in illegal immigrants in this country. I know that a number of concerns have been expressed about overstays among temporary workers. Obviously. our primary concern with this entire legislation is that we get some control over the illegal immigrants coming into this country. and it Is important that we dont close the door in one place. only to open a backdoor elsewhere. I know that the tensions over the guest worker issue run deep. I hope that with this GAO report we can start to take an objective. balanced look at what this guest worker program will mean both for farm workers and for employers. and how It can operate so it is fair to both.