Emergency legislation designed to relieve labor shortage in agriculture
May 19, 2008 10:29 AM

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee on May 15 approved legislation sponsored by U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Larry Craig (R-Idaho) that would provide emergency relief to the nation’s current agriculture labor shortage. The legislation was offered as an amendment to the Iraq supplemental spending bill.

According to a statement from Sen. Feinstein, the Emergency Agriculture Relief Act does not provide a path to citizenship or a green card. However, it would grant temporary, limited immigration status for experienced farm workers who would be required to continue to work in American agriculture for the next five years.

The legislation is designed to address the perennial shortage of agriculture workers. These shortages have caused fruit to rot on trees and farming operations to move to Mexico, according to the statement.

“This amendment provides a consistent, stable workforce for an industry that depends almost exclusively on undocumented labor — agriculture. And it provides temporary status for those who have worked in agriculture and who will continue to work in agriculture for a number of years,â€