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``Farmers to
Congress: Support a Safe and Secure American Food Supply, Pass an Immigration Fix Before the Election of 2006.''

Dear Friend:

The Senate recently debated a bill to provide increased border security. As part of that debate, I joined a bipartisan effort to include the AgJOBS as an amendment. I am happy to provide you with part of my remarks during this debate. Regrettably, this provision was not included in the final bill.

Sincerely,

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

I want to tell you what is happening in my State right now. We haven't acted, and we haven't taken care of the broader issue.
I have a farm community, an agricultural community that is in deep trouble. It seems to me, since we have 62 Members supporting the Craig-Kennedy bill, which is the AgJOBS bill, that at minimum we ought to be allowed to offer an amendment, which I know Senator Craig wants to do, to deal with this terrific problem. We must do more than one thing at a time.

To those people who say we will take care of the fence, and then after it is built we will figure out how we can take care of the rest of the immigration problem, I say that is a recipe for economic disaster, at least in the agricultural community.

I want to read to you a letter that I received from an organization that represents 1,100 organizations, the United Fresh Produce Association. The headline says: ``Farmers to
Congress: Support a Safe and Secure American Food Supply, Pass an Immigration Fix Before the Election of 2006.''

It goes on to say that we have a horrible problem in our agricultural industry.

Here is what they say:

- American labor-intensive agriculture has proactively sought a solution to its labor and immigration challenges since the early 1990's. Unfortunately, Congress has failed to act. Now, growers and producers are experiencing actual labor shortages rather than just shortages of legal workers. Labor shortages are being reported from coast to coast. Crop losses are starting to occur, from berries and pears in the West to oranges in Florida.

- Specialty crops, fruits, vegetables, nursery, greenhouse and floriculture plants, turfgrass, sod, wine grapes, forage crops, and Christmas trees comprise 50 percent of the value of the American crop agriculture. They are labor-intensive crops, and they are at risk. Also at risk are poultry, dairy and livestock production.

- My dairymen tell me the same thing. They talk about the fact that the 50-year-old flawed guest worker program just isn't working. It is unresponsive, it is bureaucratic, and it is expensive. It is litigation prone. They are asking for this AgJOBS bill.

You may ask: Senator, why can't you offer this amendment? The answer has to come from the Republican side. They control this place. I can tell you right now there is support from 1,100 businesses from growers to shippers, wholesalers, retailers in every state want this bill.

I ask unanimous consent that their letter be printed in the RECORD.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

Farmers to Congress: Support a Safe and Secure American Food Supply--Pass an Immigration Fix Before Election 2006

American labor-intensive agriculture has proactively sought a solution to its labor and immigration challenges since the early 1990's. Unfortunately, Congress has failed to act. Now, growers and producers are experiencing actual labor shortages rather than just shortages of legal workers. Labor shortages are being reported from coast to coast.

Crop losses are starting to occur, from berries and pears in the West to oranges in Florida.

Specialty crops (fruits, vegetables, nursery, greenhouse and floriculture plants, turf-grass sod, winegrapes, forage crops, and Christmas trees) comprise 50% of the value of American crop agriculture. They are labor-intensive crops, and they are at risk. Also at risk are poultry, dairy and livestock production.
An estimated 70% of the farm labor force lacks proper legal status. The only available labor safety net is a 50 year-old flawed guest worker program known as H-2A, which presently provides only two percent of the farm labor force. It is unresponsive, bureaucratic, expensive, and litigation-prone.

The reforms American agriculture needs now are two-fold: An agricultural worker program, such as reformed H-2A, that meets the special needs of agriculture; A workable transition strategy that allows for more experienced workers to earn legal status while capacity is built on the farm and at the border for wider reliance on an agricultural worker program.

Last May, the U.S. Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill. It contains agricultural provisions consistent with the needs outlined above. Namely, it overhauls H-2A to streamline the program, make it more affordable, and provide a balance of worker and employer protections.

By contrast last December the House of Representatives passed a harsh and anti-employer border security and internal enforcement bill. If it became law, H.R. 4437 would cause American agriculture to lose most of its workforce through mandatory and universal electronic verification of employment authorization documents.

What is at stake? America's food independence and security.

That's a matter of national security.

And the economic contributions and job-creation that exist here in America because the production is here.

A recent study by the American Farm Bureau conservatively projects that the loss of the workforce from an enforcement-only bill would result in U.S. fruit and vegetable production falling $5-9 billion annually in the short term and
$6.5-12 billion in the long term, with impacts in other production sectors reaching upward of $8 billion. Three to four jobs in the upstream and downstream economy are generated by each farm worker job, so well over one million good American jobs are at risk.

To avert an unfolding crisis in American agricultural disaster, Congress must enact comprehensive immigration reform that that ensures growers and producers access to a legal workforce American agriculture is unified behind these critical
principles:

A safe and secure domestic food supply is a national priority at risk. With real labor shortages emerging, agriculture needs legislative relief now. The choice is simple: Import needed labor, or import our food!

If perishable agriculture and livestock production is encouraged or forced offshore, we will also lose three to four American jobs for every farm worker job.

Any solution must recognize agriculture's uniqueness--perishable crops and products, rural nature, significant seasonality, and nature of the work.

Enacting enforcement alone, or enacting enforcement-first, will cause agriculture to lose its workforce. Even ``doing nothing''
will worsen the growing crisis, with the border already much more secure, and worksite enforcement on the rise.

As part of a comprehensive immigration reform or stand-alone legislation, agriculture needs a program that (1) eliminates needless paperwork and administrative delays; (2) provides an affordable wage rate; and (3) minimizes frivolous litigation.

For a successful transition, trained and experienced workers who lack proper legal status should be able to eventually earn permanent legal status subject to strict conditions like fines, future agricultural work requirements and lawful behavior.

American farmers, ranchers, and business people are depending on Congress to pass a good bill without further delay. To do otherwise jeopardizes American agricultural production and jobs and the food security of our Nation.

For more information: Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform, Craig Regelbrugge; National Council of Agricultural Employers, Sharon Hughes; United Fresh Produce Association Robert Guenther.

Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, we need to pass an AgJOBS bill. Our farmers and our ranchers are begging us to do it. They need a solution. But because we haven't acted, everything is paralyzed.

I want to show you a picture of Toni Skully, a pear farmer from Lake County, CA, looking at the pear crop she lost because she didn't have enough workers to pick the trees. Pear farms are an estimated $80-million-a-year business in California. They were unable to harvest 35 percent of their crop this year due to the lack of field and packinghouse labor. Unfortunately, situations like Toni's and the pear growers of Lake County are happening all over California.

I discussed this with my colleagues. They are telling me it is happening in their States, too. My lemon growers in San Diego are experiencing a 15- to 20-percent harvest loss. Avocado farmers in Ventura County are worried about workers for the December planting season. Tree fruit growers in Fresno County have seen their labor force increase by as much as 50 percent.
In Sonoma, as many as 17,000 seasonal farm workers have not returned from Mexico to work in the fields.

According to USDA, agriculture is a $239-billion-a-year industry. And if we refuse to provide a solution to labor shortages now, we are jeopardizing our domestic economy and our foreign export markets. We are driving up production costs that get passed on to consumers. Our consumers are already having trouble. Even with the decrease in gasoline prices, they are way up from where they where historically. They are dealing with health insurance premiums that are way up. They are dealing with college tuition costs and education costs that are way up. Now they are going to walk in the supermarket where we have such good prices and see that prices are up because of the inability to hire people because there has been a crackdown on the workers.

All of that is happening for one reason: the House wouldn't follow the Senate. The Senate had taken care of it. We had a good, broad bill that dealt with border security, additional guards at the border, and everything they needed at the border, plus a way to deal with the agricultural industry and the millions of workers who are in the shadows who are afraid to come out of the shadows.

Let me tell you, do you think that makes us secure when we don't know who they are? I don't think it does for a minute.
That is why we need to have this type of bill passed in the Senate.

But at minimum, I say to Senator Frist, allow us to offer the Craig amendment. Senator Feinstein is very strong on this.

It was interesting. Independent of one another we immediately said we ought to offer the Craig-Kennedy amendment. She and I talked to Senator Craig. We said: Please put us on as cosponsors.

A 2006 study done by the American Farm Bureau found that if agriculture's access to migrant labor is cut off, as much as $5 billion to $9 billion in annual production would be lost--and that is just the short-term prediction. If agriculture's access to migrant labor is cut off, as much as $5 billion to $9 billion in annual production of primarily import-sensitive commodities would be lost in the short term. That is a statistic from the American Farm Bureau Federation.

I will do whatever I can to convince the Republican leadership to allow Congress to take care of agriculture. When we have a bill that is supported by 62 Senators, on both sides of the aisle, that is supported by labor and management, it makes sense to move it forward. I cannot stand the thought of looking in the eyes of my dairymen and my farmers one more time when they come back here and say the first issue on their agenda is this problem they are having with their workforce.

There is a way to do this that makes sense. There is a way to do this that will give us control of our border. That is what we ought to be doing. We ought to be looking, at the minimum, to saving our agricultural industry.

I say to my Republican friends, and I am being very honest, I am not sure farmers have been my strong supporters over the years. They usually go Republican. I can read the list of supporters. What is the majority doing, shutting them out?

Let's work together. Let's work together for them, for the consumers, for the workers. We cannot afford the one-two punch of an agriculture industry that begins to fall apart as the housing industry is having problems. We just cannot afford to see another sector have a problem. Autos, housing, now agriculture?

Please, this is too important to play politics with. Help our agriculture businesses. Help our workers. Help get people out of the shadows. Do something to help America. Don't keep this bill so narrow in focus that we do not see the forest for the trees.

I hope we have some good news and that there will be a good agreement on our surveillance issue, on our military tribunal issue. I hope the leadership will open this up to save our agriculture industries. They are asking us for this.

I yield the floor.

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For more information on Senator Boxer's record and other information, please go to: http://www.boxer.senate.gov