Speech #1050168930

Mr. President. the Kentucky Farm Bureau and the hundreds of farmers that I met with on my recent farm belt tour convinced me that one of the most pressing issues facing Kentucky farmers is the problem of finding legal. migrant farm workers. Kentucky farmers depend heavily on migrant agricultural workers that come to Kentucky under H2A visas to help harvest tobacco and other crops. Kentucky depends on the H2A visa program more than every other state. except North Carolina and Virginia. The current H2A process is slow. tedious and complex. It subjects farmers to unreasonable costs. excessive bureaucracy. and mountains of paperwork. To add to the injustice. farmers are faced with frivolous lawsuits and IRS raids--often at the peak time of the harvest. The Agriculture Job Opportunity Benefits and Security Act would lift the unfair burdens placed on farmers by reforming the H2A visa program and reducing: the mountains of paperwork. the excessive bureaucracy. and the unfair threats of frivolous litigation. In order to get migrant workers. a Kentucky farmer has to find his way through the Kentucky Department of Labor. the U.S. Department of Labor. and the Immigration and Naturalization Servicepaying fees and filling out cumbersome. confusing paperwork all along the way. Most farmers will tell you that its easier to wade through the tax code and file a 1040 tax form every year than it is to slog through multiple government agencies and mountains of paperwork just to hire a migrant farm worker to help bale hay. In fact. the Department of Labor needs a 325page handbook to help farmers find their way to migrant farm workers. The Government Accounting Office managed to get through this handbook and found it to be outdated. incomplete and very confusing. You shouldnt have to hire a lawyer just to hire a migrant farmer. Id like to take a couple of minutes to walk through some of the common problems faced by farmers and the common sense solutions offered by the bill we are introducing today. Problem: Farmers are hesitant to use the process because it is too slow and complicated. Solution: A simplified. streamlined H2A visa program would encourage more farmers to go through the system to hire legal migrant farm workers. Problem: Farmers must pay multiple fees. go through multiple agencies. and fillout multiple documents. Solution: A Department of Labor computer registry would be established to replace the current cumbersome and bureaucratic process. Farmers would submit a simple form asking for a certain number of workers at a specified time. If there is an insufficient number of domestic workers available. then the DOL would contact the INS to initiate an expedited visa approval process for migrant farm workers. (All program costs would be paid for by employer user fees.) Problem: Farmers must apply for workers 60 days in advanceeven though they may not know exactly how many workers they will need or exactly when they will need them. Solution: Farmers do not have to begin process two months in advance. They may apply any time prior to actually hiring foreign workers.