WASHINGTON, D.C. — The issue of farm labor, or the lack thereof, is still a hot topic – especially as tougher immigration laws are being passed in states such as Georgia and Florida. Both are facing huge losses of immigrant workers, as the new laws have driven much of the migrant labor force out of those states.

But the shortages are being reported everywhere, from the apple orchards of Washington state to the tobacco fields in Kentucky. The American Farm Bureau estimates $5 billion-$9 billion in annual production could be at risk if these shortages aren’t addressed.

The current H-2A guest worker program, which oversees the process of getting immigrant labor to the places that need it, has been overhauled and tinkered with over the tenure of the last two presidential administrations. Last fall, a new bill was introduced in Congress that would actually do away with the current program and replace it with something called the H-2C program.

The American Specialty Agriculture Act was introduced by U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chair Lamar Smith (R-Texas) who said, at the time, “American growers need to hire hundreds of thousands of seasonal agricultural workers each year to tend and harvest their crops. But the current temporary agricultural work visa program is so plagued with problems that growers avoid using it altogether.

“If we are really going to help American growers in the long term, we need to provide them a workable guest worker program that will help them hire a legal workforce.”

Smith went on to say this new bill will replace an ineffective program with a more effective system and will be responsive to the needs of American growers, while maintaining strong safeguards to protect citizens and legal workers.

“It also makes necessary reforms to help ensure American growers hire a legal workforce without a fraud-ridden mass amnesty for illegal immigrant farm workers,” he said. “Our agricultural guest worker program needs to be fair to everyone it impacts – including growers, American farm workers, guest workers and consumers.

It must provide growers who want to do the right thing with a reliable source of legal labor. It must protect the livelihoods of American workers and the rights of guest workers. And, it must keep in mind the pocketbooks of American families. The American Specialty Agriculture Act accomplishes these goals and will help ensure growers keep growing our crops and our economy.”

According to information from the House Judiciary Committee, some of the highlights of the legislation include:

•It would be administered by the USDA as opposed to the Department of Labor

•It would allow farmers to provide either housing or a housing voucher payable to a landlord

•It ensures growers only have to reimburse an H-2C worker for the transportation costs from the worker’s home to the place of employment if the worker completes 50 percent of the work contract period

•The H-2C program does not contain the current “50 percent” rule that requires growers to provide employment to U.S. workers who apply, until 50 percent of the worker’s work contract period is elapsed

•The new program would not require the qualifying work to be of a temporary or seasonal nature, therefore allowing dairies and other non-seasonal agricultural employers to participate

•The bill requires H-2C workers to return home after 10 months of work, and allows up to half a million foreign workers a year to receive H-2C visas

While most would probably not argue the need to make federal immigrant labor guidelines better, many organizations have come out against the American Specialty Agriculture Act. In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, the Southern Poverty Law Center said the legislation is an attack on all farm workers. The national Immigration law center noted in a release that the “bill would strip farm workers of their labor rights as well as bring thousands of new guest workers into the U.S. while doing nothing for the undocumented workers currently picking our crops.”

The bill has been introduced into committee. To read it online, go to http://judiciary.house.gov/news/pdfs/American%20Specialty%20Agriculture%20Act.pdf