Partly for these reasons. the House of Representatives in late March overwhelmingly defeated an effort by agribusiness to gain permission to bring in several hundred thousand farmworkers from abroad under poor wages and working conditions. Without a shortage of domestic farmworkers. we should not encourage the hiring of foreign guestworkers. In addition. the Advisory Council said that the "vast majority. 97 percent. of the cost of the H2A certification process is funded through the FUTA tax." since the fees paid by growers do not cover anything close to the Governments cost of operating the temporary foreign worker program. This tax exemption will put the burden on the American taxpayer to pick up more of the cost of employers hiring foreign workers. The unemployment insurance program is designed to spread the costs of rr.nimizing the negative effects on society of u ..mployment. and employers of foreign farm . rkers should not be exempt from sharing in that cost.