Howard Berman: “this is a change in the law. The debate, the argument that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Chambliss) has put forward…”

“this is a change in the law. The debate, the argument that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Chambliss) has put forward, among other things, was referring to the H-2A program, but the amendment deals with the migrant and seasonal agricultural workers program. H-2A workers are not covered under that law. They have no rights under that law. The only people this amendment affects are U.S. farm workers who happen to be represented by Legal Services as opposed to other private lawyers or other legal aid programs. There are many, many laws that provide attorneys fees for plaintiffs in the Labor law context; the gentleman selected out one law and one group of people, U.S. farm workers who happen to be represented by Legal Services Corporation. The gentleman is doing it on an appropriations bill, a fundamental change in a very narrow subset of one law that happens to deal with the lowest income workers in America today. If there is an argument, which I do not think there is, for allowing defendants against workers who win in lawsuits who ultimately prevail to collect attorneys fees, it should be done across board.”