November/December 2019 - 35

Still time to get new agriculture labor bill right
With the
NATIONAL
POTATO
COUNCIL
Kam Quarles
Chief Executive
Officer
introduction of the
Farm Workforce
Modernization
Act, the House of
Representatives has
begun another effort
at immigration reform
for agriculture. Though
the bill doesn't provide
the full solution that
American agriculture
requires, the bipartisan
work that created it is
important and merits moving it forward.
This year's bill (the " Lofgren Bill " ) is a
mirror of its predecessor (the " Goodlatte
Bill " ) that was attempted in the previous
Congress. That also was imperfect bill in that
it failed to fix the entire crisis.
The gaps in the two bills are essentially
reciprocal. The Goodlatte Bill focused mostly
on reforming the agricultural guest worker
program without complimentary reforms for
the current improperly documented workforce.
The Lofgren Bill focuses on legalizing the
current workforce without thoroughly
addressing the long-term needs of agriculture
through a durable guest worker program.
Ensuring this guest worker piece is done
correctly is the critical element. As we've
seen with the current H-2A program, it can't
provide the workforce agriculture needs,
so the result has been a huge " improperly
documented " pool of workers who live in
constant legal and physical uncertainty. The
agricultural operations that rely on them are
similarly vulnerable to immigration raids that
can destroy a year's worth of production if
they occur at a critical time.
However, the fact that neither bill was
perfect at the beginning is not necessarily a
negative. Both bills sought to start a legislative
process by attempting to pass something in
the House. Without successfully completing
that step, no further steps are possible.
Agriculture deals with this situation every
five years on another important federal policy
- the Farm Bill. Neither the House nor the
Senate have produced perfect Farm Bill bills
at the beginning. However, the agriculture
industry still supports their efforts to move
the unpolished bills toward a conference
committee. At that point, leaders from both
sides pick the best of each imperfect bill and
meld them into a comprehensive package
that serves the industry for half a decade.
As the crisis in agricultural labor continues
to grow, the imperative of providing a
comprehensive legislative solution is brought
more into focus. The Administration has sought
to provide some regulatory relief, but those
efforts are limited by the impaired structure of
our immigration laws and the H-2A program.
The fundamental structure can be changed only
by Congress, so the solution requires their action.
The agriculture industry must assist
that process by recognizing it has to
start somewhere. Given the infirmities in
both the Lofgren and Goodlatte bills, the
agriculture industry could not provide outright
endorsements of either. But that doesn't
mean the efforts can't be rewarded by moving
legislation forward, recognizing that major
improvements must be made in the Senate
and finally in a conference committee.
Requiring a perfect bill at the beginning
virtually ensures stagnation. We are pushing
to break out of that stagnation and keep
reform efforts alive in service of an industry
that deeply needs them to succeed.
Spudman * November/December 2019
33
November/December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November/December 2019
