Robert Smith: “I thought I would take to the floor of the Senate today and speak about something I learned, something I experienced…”

“I thought I would take to the floor of the Senate today and speak about something I learned, something I experienced which I wanted to highlight. Right now, it is an issue that is sort of a low light in this body. Earlier in this Congress, Senator Bob Graham of Florida and I introduced a bill to fix our H-2A guest worker program that affects agriculture. Preceding that, Senators Graham and Wyden and I met with the Secretary of Labor and pleaded for the administration to come forward with some sort of fix to relieve the pressure on the farm labor system. There are enough workers, but you have to settle for an illegal system to conclude that there are enough workers. The Secretary assured us that something would be forthcoming, but nothing has been. In the meantime, I have gone forward with this fix of our farm guest worker program in the hopes of getting something through in this Congress that could win the support of the administration and begin to relieve a problem I have now seen in a very human way.”