Dianne Feinstein: “Senators Craig, Kennedy, Martinez, Boxer, Voinovich and I are once again introducing legislation that will address the…”

“Senators Craig, Kennedy, Martinez, Boxer, Voinovich and I are once again introducing legislation that will address the chronic labor shortage in our Nation's agricultural industry. This bill is a priority for me--and for the tens of thousands of farmers who are currently suffering--and I hope we will move it forward early in this Congress. The Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits, and Security Act, or AgJOBS, is the product of more than ten years of work. It is a bipartisan bill supported by growers, farmers, and farm workers alike. It passed the Senate last year as part of the comprehensive immigration reform bill last spring in the 109th Congress. It is time to move this bill forward. The agricultural industry is in crisis. Farmers across the Nation report a 20 percent decline in labor. The result is that there are simply not enough farm workers to harvest the crops. The Nation's agricultural industry has suffered. If we do not enact a workable solution to the agricultural labor crisis, we risk a national production loss of $5 billion to $9 billion each year, according to the American Farm Bureau. California, in particular, will suffer. California is the single largest agricultural state in the nation. California agriculture accounts for $34 billion in annual revenue. There 76,500 farms that produce half of the nation's fruits, vegetables, and nuts from only 3 percent of the Nation's farmland.”