On the recordDecember 11, 2019
Today is a monumental and historical day. This bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019 will truly help people throughout the country. I want to thank Chairperson Zoe Lofgren and Dan Newhouse for their hard work over the last 9 months in bringing all the parties to the table. Earlier this year, in September, Chairperson Lofgren, with Congressmen Panetta, Cox, and myself, held a workshop where all the organizations from farm country, as well as the UFW, and others, presented what needed to be done. And, lo and behold, it has happened. My colleagues ask, Why do we need to have the urgency of this bill? Well, last month I visited with United Farmworkers in Madera, California, and told them the promise of this legislation. I saw in their eyes, and their children who were there, I saw hope; a hope to become free of fear and the fear of deportation; hope for the American Dream, and all that that entails, that all immigrants past and present have shared, in this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to pass this bill today. The Senate must pass it, and the President should sign it into law. This is the right thing to do.
