Robert Smith: “I rise today with Senators Wyden, Craig, Graham of Florida, Gorton, Bumpers, Hatch, McConnell, and Mack to introduce the…”

“I rise today with Senators Wyden, Craig, Graham of Florida, Gorton, Bumpers, Hatch, McConnell, and Mack to introduce the Agricultural Job Opportunity Benefits and Security Act of 1998, also known as AgJOBS. Our bill will create a streamlined guest worker program to allow for a reliable supply of legal, temporary, agricultural workers. Mr. President, we are facing a crisis in agriculture--a crisis born of an inadequate labor supply. For many years, farmers and nurserymen have struggled to hire enough legal agricultural workers to harvest their produce and plants. The labor pool is competitive, especially in my state of Oregon, where jobs are many and domestic workers willing to do farm work are few. The General Accounting Office even confirmed that there have been local, regional and crop-based labor shortages and losses. Labor intensive agriculture is the most rapidly growing area of agricultural production in this country and we can only expect the demand for agricultural labor jobs to continue to rise. When coupled with the lowest unemployment rates in decades and a crackdown on illegal immigration, the agriculture industry--and ultimately its consumers--face a crisis.”