The General Accounting Office even confirmed that there have been local. regional and cropbased labor shortages and losses. Labor intensive agriculture is the most rapidly growing area of agricultural production in this country and we can only expect the demand for agricultural labor jobs to continue to rise. When coupled with the lowest unemployment rates in decades and a crackdown on illegal immigration. the agriculture industryand ultimately its consumers--face a crisis. 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 industries because it is loaded with burdensome regulations. excessive paperwork. a bureaucratic certification process and untimely and inconsistent decisionmaking by the U.S. Department of Labor. Also. as reported by the recent Department of Labor Inspector General. the H2A program does not meet the interests of domestic workers because it does a poor job of placing domestic workers in agricultural jobs. I am proud to announce legislation that is the product of a bipartisan effort put forth today by several of my colleagues. With their help. we have been able to develop a consensus solution that will create a workable system for recruiting workers domestically and preventing crops from rotting in the fields.
Keywords matched
illegal immigration H2A