Angie Craig: “My original cosponsor, Senator Kennedy, is in the Chamber. He and I worked collectively on the issue of a guest worker…”

“My original cosponsor, Senator Kennedy, is in the Chamber. He and I worked collectively on the issue of a guest worker program for this country that would create a legality, a transparency, and a reasonableness to the management of it in a reformed H-2A worker program that he and I worked on and shaped and which became known as AgJOBS, along with how we dealt with the issue of those in the country today who are illegal and who remain a critical part of the American workforce, and especially with agriculture, an industry that has become increasingly dependent upon migrant workers, guest workers and, in this instance, tragically enough, illegal workers. Let me cite a couple of examples because I, like Senator Feinstein and others, Senator Boxer; the State of California, the State of Idaho, the State of Oregon, the State of Washington; in fact, the State of the Nation where agriculture exists today--the Presiding Officer, Senator Martinez, has just gone through a situation in the State of Florida where literally millions and millions of dollars' worth of oranges have rotted simply because they couldn't find the hands to pick them to put them through the process of packing and distribution. America's agriculture is dependent on hand labor.”