Political Quotes

“I want to thank my good friend from Colorado for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, if you talk to any farmer in this country, one of the biggest issues that they will raise and something they are concerned with, is their labor force, a secure and legal labor force. And that is what brought together a bipartisan group of Members of Congress, representatives from agricultural groups around the country, as well as agricultural labor groups around the country, to come up with a bill to deal with the labor situation that we have in this country, to provide a certain legal labor force; something that is simple in saying that, but very, very complex in order to get to the solution. So this has three titles. Number one deals with the current workforce. We have come up with something that the President has asked for, a merit-based system to provide legality to our current workforce that requires a history of ag labor; it requires fines because people broke the law to get here; and it requires people to stay engaged in the agricultural industry. Title two simply is to reform the H-2A program, something that we desperately need. It makes it more responsive, more efficient. It will cap the ever-skyrocketing wage growth in this country of the AEWR to 3.25 percent per year. Some States next year are facing a 9\1/2\ percent increase. On top of that, it will allow full-time employers, like dairies, to be able to take advantage and utilize the H-2A program.…”