Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise today in favor of H.R. 5038, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, and I thank Chairwoman Lofgren, her staff, the committee staff, and the personal staff of all the Members who have been working on this bill for, I don't know, 8 or 9 months. We all want the same thing, and we are here today addressing agriculture's number one issue, and that is their labor force. We will hear a lot during this debate, and we already have, about how this is amnesty and indentured servitude. It is neither of those things. In fact, those are contradictory terms, so the argument at best is insincere. Let me say what this bill does. It legalizes the current workforce so long as workers get right with the law, have a clean criminal record, and can demonstrate the same work experiences our former colleague Bob Goodlatte said they must have to qualify. If they want to access further legal status, they work 4 to 8 more years in agriculture and then pay a fine and get in line while they continue to work in agriculture. That doesn't sound like amnesty to me. For my farmers back home who desperately need this, the bill streamlines the H-2A program to make it more affordable. It doesn't do everything we want, but it makes it better than what we have today, in fact, much better than what we have today. It brings wages under control by freezing them for 1 year and then capping future growth.…”