Political Quotes

“I rise to speak about the special procedures for certain nonimmigrant agricultural workers included in the underlying immigration bill. I have thoughts about the overall immigration bill which I will share later, but at this time I want to focus on a specific provision in the underlying substitute amendment. Many farmers and ranchers in this country will tell you that they need reliable, dedicated, and experienced employees to make their operation successful. This could mean contracting with seasonal workers to help a farmer harvest row crops or for my colleague, Chairman Leahy, it could mean finding employees to milk and move cows on dairy farms in Vermont. Agricultural labor in this country comes from a variety of places, and an important source is from temporary and seasonal foreign workers. Currently, the H-2A program assists employers and foreign workers with visas to perform temporary and seasonal agricultural labor. The most common form of agricultural visa is for seasonal work in harvesting, planting, or maintaining crops. Workers usually get visas to the United States to perform work for several months and then return to their home nations. However, Congress and the administration for decades have recognized a special segment of temporary agricultural workers which are distinct from the others, particularly those industries within agriculture which require workers for longer periods because of the unique work they perform.…”