Its growth not only creates many production and harvest jobs. but also creates many more jobs outside of agriculture. Approximately three offfarm jobs are directly dependent upon each onfarm job. Currently. the H2A program is the only legal temporary foreign agricultural worker program in the United States. This program is not practicable for the agriculture and horticulture industry because it is loaded with burdensome regulations. excessive paperwork. a bureaucratic certification process. untimely and inconsistent decisionmaking by the U.S. Department of Labor. and costly housing requirements. The H2A program has also been very small in relation to the total number of U.S. farm workers. It is estimated that out of the 2.5 million farm workers in the United States. only 23.496 H2A job certifications have been issued by the Department of Labor this year. In my State of Oregon. only 12 sheepshearers and 62 sheepherders are currently using the H2A program. It is time we address the shortfalls of current policy. and I believe that our bill is a meaningful step in that direction. Mr. President. the bill we are introducing today would not replace or interfere with the current H2A program. but would supplement the H2A program with a twoyear pilot program that examines an alternative approach to recruiting agricultural workers. The pilot program will be limited to 25.000 participants per fiscal year and would protect the domestic workers rights and living standards. Mr.