The Lame Duck Congress is usually a time when many bills get passed. Bills that would normally bring up controversy for politicians, don?t seem as risky when you go home in a couple of days. One of the bills that are waiting for approval in the Senate is the Workforce Modernization Act. This would allow a much more robust and modernized guest worker program to allow more workers into the country to do the jobs many businesses have trouble filling.
Agriculture has definitely been on the frontlines of this debate. Many seasonal workers come in to help with crops that need tending to. However, what happens when you have an operation that has no season, like livestock production? Animals do not have an off-season, yet ranches, feedlots, and hog operations cannot get year-round help, because of the limitations under the current laws.
Janille Baker is part of the 4th generation Baker Ranch in Utah and Nevada. She says for most ranchers in the southwest, there is no greater topic than labor.
Baker adds that the current H-2A has been a burden to use, but it is the only way to get any foreign workers to the operation to help.
Baker, like many producers, is speaking out and letting the public know that without reform, it will affect prices in the grocery store. Prices going up during a period of inflation or recession is not going to bode well.
Baker says it isn?t just a rancher problem, it affects agriculture in every facet. Producers need help and need to be able to tap into a willing workforce with commonsense guidelines.
Producers across the country are urging farmers to act on this legislation before the Christmas break and the setting of a new Congress, where the debate would start all over again.
