National Legislative Report:
Farm Bill: After several weeks of negotiations on the 2008 Farm Bill, House conferees were appointed April 9. The Senate had named its conferees in February, but the House had waited to name its conferees until they could see that negotiations were far enough along that there was light at the end of the tunnel. The House has complex jurisdictional responsibilities for the various committees, so the Farm Bill conferees not only include the chairmen and ranking members of the six major subcommittees, but also members from other House committees. They include members of Energy and Commerce, Education and Labor, Financial Services, Foreign Affairs, Natural Resources, Science and Technology, Transportation and Infrastructure and Ways and Means Committees. These other committees have jurisdictions that relate to provisions in the Farm Bill dealing with energy, conservation, potential tax credits and other related matters, so by being on the conference committee they can have a voice in how the provisions are finally shaped and then implemented. The majority of issues to be resolved in conference are within the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Committee.
The House made an opening offer to the Senate conferees of $5.5 billion that would be added to the bill above the Congressional Budget Office baseline. The number that has been talked about for the last several weeks is $10 billion. The bulk of the difference is in a permanent disaster program that Senate Agriculture Chair Tom Harking (D-IA) supports. A counter-offer from the Senate was sent to the House on Aprill 11. It is much like the framework both sides agreed to in late March---with some different offsets and some slightly different spending allocations. The package would include about $10 billion in new farm bill funds for programs like permanent disaster and $2.5 billion in tax credits. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson said that the tax credits were "mucking up" the farm bill. So, the negotiations will continue and hopefully there will be a Farm Bill agreed to in the near future.
For additional Farm Bill information, you can go to the committee web sites:
http://agriculture.senate.gov and
http://agriculture.house.gov. There is also a lot of good Farm Bill information at
http://www.usda.gov.
Immigration Reform: At the same time the House and Senate are working to finalize a Farm Bill, there is a lot of activity on agricultural immigration in three areas: amending the current H-2A regulations; the revised regulations on social security “no match” letters; and efforts towards immigration reform.
Regarding the H-2A regulations, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor published proposals to amend the H-2A seasonal agriculture labor program to make it more useable for agricultural employers seeking to use it for a source of labor. The current program is unworkable. Fruit and vegetable growers are unable to relay on it for a source of labor. These crops have to be harvested timely, and those growers must have a reliable workforce. Also, the H-2A program does not have provisions for providing a labor force for operations such as dairy farms, because the labor is not seasonal.
DHS and DOL consulted with the ag industry in putting together proposed changes. Comments were due April 14, and many ag organizations and AAW members have commented on the changes.
Concerning changes to the immigration laws, ag supporters in Congress are continuing to work to find a solution. As we’ve experienced in Kansas this Session, the public has many strong views on immigration, and that makes it difficult for their elected representatives to find common ground to address the issue. For agriculture, it is critical to provide the workforce needed both seasonally and throughout the year to produce and harvest agricultural commodities.
The issue of the “no match” letters continues as well. Late last summer DHS along with the Social Security Administration issued proposed regulations that would have required employers to follow up on “no match” Social Security letters received by any of their employees within 90 days after receiving a “no match” letter from DHS. At the end of the 90 days, if the matter was not resolved, the employer would have to fire the employee or face stiff fines and sanctions. A federal court placed an injunction on the implementation of this program, requiring DHS to revise the proposed regulations. DHS did so and reissued the regulations March 25, with a 30-day comment period to close on April 24. Final regulations could be issued as early as the end of May. Unless the regulations are successfully challenged in court again, “no match” letters could be sent out as early as June.