QI-1s Medicare Cost-Sharing Extension Act of 2003

Mr. President, I am pleased to announce today the introduction of bipartisan farmworker reform legislation with a bipartisan group of Members in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Our leading sponsors include Senator Ted Kennedy, Congressman Howard Berman, and Congressman Chris Cannon.

The name of the bill says it all--``AgJOBS.'' That stands for the ``Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003.'' We are introducing this bill today because Members of Congress realize our Nation is facing a growing crisis--for farm workers, growers, and the wider public. We want and need a stable, predictable, legal work force in American agriculture.

Willing American workers deserve a system that puts them first in line for available jobs with fair market wages. We want all workers to receive decent treatment and protection of fundamental legal rights. Consumers deserve a safe, stable, domestic food supply. American citizens and taxpayers deserve secure borders and a government that works.

Yet Americans are being threatened on all these counts, because agriculture, more than any other sector of the economy, has become dependent for its existence on the labor of immigrants who are here without legal documentation. The only program currently in place to respond to a lack of legal domestic workers, the H-2A Guest Workers Program, is profoundly broken. Outside of H-2A, farm employers have no effective, reliable assurance that their employees are legal. Our own government has estimated that half of the total 1.6 million agricultural work force are not legally authorized to work in this country, based, astoundingly, on self-disclosure in worker surveys. Responsible private estimates run to 85 percent.

Several more times in recent months, we have read of the senseless and inhuman deaths of farmworkers being smuggled illegally into the United States. Those who survive to work in the fields are among the most vulnerable persons in this country, unable to assert the most basic legal rights and protections. This situation never was acceptable. It has become intolerable. Immigrants not legally authorized to work in this country know they must work in hiding. They have been known to pay ``coyotes''--labor smugglers--thousands of dollars to be smuggled into this country. They cannot even claim basic legal rights and protections. They are vulnerable to predation and exploitation. They sometimes have been stuffed inhumanly into dangerously enclosed truck trailers and car trunks, in order to be transported, hidden from the view of the law. We heard with horror of the young girl who died this summer when a labor smuggler abandoned her entire family in the desert in the Southwest.

In contrast, legal workers have legal protections. They can assert wage, safety, and other legal protections. They can bargain openly and join unions. H-2A workers, in fact, are guaranteed housing and transportation. Time is running out for American agriculture, farmworkers, and consumers. What was a problem years ago is a crisis today and will be a catastrophe if we do not act immediately. A growing number of family farms simply are going out of business as growers try to, but cannot, secure a legal work force. All Americans face the danger of losing more and more of our safe, domestic food supply to imports.

Many farmers have seen recently hired workers scattered unpredictably by a government letter or random raid. As enforcement of our immigration and employment documentation laws has been stepped up-- sporadically and haphazardly--workers are rarely deported,

but the workplace is frequently and widely disrupted. Between computerized checking by the Social Security Administration and audits and raids by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, more and more employers have discovered they have undocumented employees. More and more workers here illegally are being discovered and evicted from their jobs. The larger the so-called ``underground economy,'' the harder it is to knowledgeably and effectively provide for our homeland security needs.

The H-2A status quo is complicated and legalistic. The Department of Labor's compliance manual alone is more than 300 pages long. A General Accounting Office study found that DOL missed deadlines in processing H-2A applications 40 percent of the time. For workers and growers alike, the H-2A status quo is slow, bureaucratic, and inflexible. It does nothing to recognize the uncertainties farmers face, from changes in the weather to global market demands. The current H-2A process is so hard to use, it will place only about 40,000 legal guest workers this year--2 to 3 percent of the total agricultural work force.

The answer is AgJOBS. This farmworker reform legislation builds upon some six years of discussion and ideas from among growers, farmworker advocates, Latino and immigration issue groups, Members of both parties in both Houses of Congress, and others. The coming together of all these diverse viewpoints and interests makes AgJOBS truly an historic piece of legislation. Our AgJOBS bill offers a thoughtful, two-step solution. On a one-time basis, experienced, trusted workers with a significant work history in American agriculture would be allowed to stay here legally and earn adjustment to legal status. For workers and growers using the H-2A legal guest worker program, that program would be overhauled and made more streamlined, practical, and secure. AgJOBS takes a win-win-win approach for our nation, workers, and farmers.

AgJOBS may be no one's idea of perfect labor and immigration legislation in an ideal world. However, for the imperfect world we live in, it is a balanced, practical, and achievable approach to resolving urgent problems that require immediate attention. The broad bipartism support for this approach is reflected already in the cosponsorship of a number of our colleagues. Among others, I am happy we are joined by Senators Gordon Smith and Bob Graham as original cosponsors, both of whom have invested years of work in this issue. Supporters of this legislation include the United Farm Workers of America, the National Council of La Raza, and the AFL-CIO, all of whom participated in a press conference the principal sponsors held earlier today, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. This bill has overwhelming support in the agriculture community, including the National Council of Agricultural Employers, the American Nursery and Landscape Association, and the American Farm Bureau Federation.

I ask unanimous consent to print in the Record a list from the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform that includes a large number of agricultural groups around the country who support this bill. I also ask unanimous consent to print a technical summary of the bill; a side-by-side comparison with current law; an open letter to Congress from our former Secretary of Agriculture, Ambassador Clayton Yeutter; and the next of the AgJOBS bill.

Mr. President, it is a privilege to join my colleagues in introducing the Agricultural Jobs, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act.

The treatment of immigrant farm workers, dating back to the Bracero program, represents a shameful chapter in our history. The decades of exploitation these workers have endured continues to this day. Large numbers of men and women employed in agriculture today are indispensable workers who also happen to be undocumented. As a result, they are easily exploited by unscrupulous employers, who get away with paying them very low wages and forcing them to work in dangerous conditions. Inevitably, that means lower wages for legal farm workers.

We have been struggling for decades to find a solution to this emotional heart-wrenching problem. This legislation--a historic and far-reaching agreement between the United Farm Workers of America and the representatives of agricultural industries--provides a common sense solution to this long-standing problem. It will provide farm workers and their families with dignity and justice and give agricultural industries with a legal workforce.

We need an agriculture policy grounded in reality, a policy that recognizes their contributions and respects and rewards their work. This legislation will improve the wages and working conditions of all farm workers, and provide a way for foreign-born workers to become permanent residents.

Under this bill, 500,000 farm workers currently working the United States will be able to legalize their status. These changes will benefit both workers and growers. The legislation will improve the wages and working conditions of all farm workers, and provide a way for foreign-born workers to become permanent residents.

Agriculture is a unique industry. Growers must have an immediate and reliable workforce at harvest time. Everyone is harmed when crops rot in the field because the workers are not available. With these changes, growers will have greater access to dependable, hard-working employees, and a workforce that is no longer subject to sudden immigration raids.

I urge my colleagues to support this needed legislation. These reforms are long overdue, to improve the lives and working conditions of all farm workers, and it is long past time for Congress to act.

Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleagues, Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts and Senator Craig of Idaho, in introducing the Agricultural Job Opportunity Benefits and Security Act of 2003. For the last six years, I have been working closely with several of my colleagues in the Senate and House of Representatives, including the Senators from Massachusetts and Idaho, to enact legislation that would provide a balanced approach to reforming our agricultural guest worker program.

There is one thing I believe we can all agree on--the status quo of agricultural guest workers in America is unacceptable. Under the status quo, we have created an underground society and pushed many of our Nation's hardest workers into the shadows. This is unfair treatment for workers who play such a vital part in our Nation's economic health.

Recently, the Miami Herald published a series documenting the horrible working and living conditions of agricultural workers in Florida. I have attached parts of that series for the Record. This series substantiates what we have all known anecdotally for years. Farm workers in our country--those who are legal citizens or residents of the United States as well as those who are undocumented--live in uninhabitable housing, are transported in vehicles that do not meet basic safety standards, and are subject to predatory lending practices that require payment of as much as 100 percent interest on accumulated debt.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the series be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, today, I am joined by Senator Hollings in introducing legislation to provide a short-term extension of the safety programs administered by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the boating safety program administered by the Coast Guard. It is our expectation that this measure will be joined with broader legislation to extend the highway and transit programs for five months.

I take pride in the fact that the Senate Commerce Committee completed work last June on a 6-year reauthorization of the safety programs under its jurisdiction. The bipartisan bill is designed to meet the level of commitment to safety needed to achieve aggressive goals for reducing accidents and fatalities on the nation's roadways. This short-term extension is consistent with our Committee's longer-term reauthorization proposal. It is also consistent with the President's budget request for fiscal year 2004 and with the appropriations bill for fiscal year 2004 that has been reported by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

We look forward to working with our colleagues to approve the extension to ensure the continuity of these important safety programs.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Hard-working, law-abiding farmers and growers also suffer under the current system. They continue to be at legal risk for hiring undocumented workers who frequently present fraudulent documents that appear to be credible. The current agricultural guest worker program also fails to provide for unforeseen labor shortages.

The bill before us provides an essential balance. It establishes a legal system that ensures basic rights and protections for workers who make significant contributions to our nation's economy. It also ensures the development of an efficient agricultural guest worker program that improves farmer and grower access to legal agricultural workers.

Agricultural workers do extremely grueling work, work that puts fruits, vegetables and flowers on the tables of many American households. Dedicated, experienced farm workers deserve the dignity, empowerment and improved quality of life that come with earning legal status. Farmers that play by the rules should have a modern, streamlined program that provides easier access to legal agricultural workers.

Congress has not focused on farm worker issues since the mid-1980s. Reform of our agricultural guest worker program is long overdue, and I am hopeful that we will move beyond our status quo and address this important issue this year.