The blue card program is a critical piece of the agricultural job solution. It is an essential transition program. Let me repeat. agriculture needs this blue card if we dont want to throw it immediately into havoc because agriculture. whether we like it or not. based on an H2A law that didnt work at all well and a very transparent border. has grown increasingly dependent on an illegal workforce. There are no wage requirements for blue card workers in the bill. It is only the 40.000plus H2A we shove back. They are paid whatever the farmer is paying. whatever the current wage is in the area. and other workers are gaining. And those wages would differ from place to place and job to job. farm to farm. What the Chambliss amendment does. however. is it says that blue card workers must be paid a prevailing wage. It pushes the base up substantially. The Chambliss amendment doesnt just deal with the wages of the H2A program. the 40plus. it applies the same fix to every farmer who employs a blue card transitional worker. Now. why is that significant? Here is why: By definition. the prevailing wage is neither the lowest nor the highest wage. it is just about in the middle or between the two.