Action Needed in Support of Emergency Agriculture Relief Act

Late last week the Senate Appropriations Committee included the Emergency Agriculture Relief Act (EARA) in the Fiscal Year 2008 Supplemental Appropriations bill. EARA is a compromise bill intended to provide a temporary five-year solution for agriculture’s alien worker problems until Congress can revisit the issue of comprehensive immigration reform. This Supplemental bill is to be considered this week by the Senate and we need contacts to Senators in support of keeping the provision in the bill.

This may be the last opportunity in this Congress to move this bill so please fax a letter to your Senators or call them asking them to support EARA and ask your state organizations and members to do the same. Time is crucial and contacts should be made as soon as possible.

EARA is basically Senator Feinstein’s AgJOBS bill (S. 340). It would streamline the H-2A temporary and seasonal alien farm worker program and allow agriculture to stabilize its experienced workforce, some of whom may be undocumented. But EARA would not provide permanent legal status to undocumented workers now in the U.S. because it would “sunset” after five years. EARA also includes a provision that would allow agricultural horse workers to enter the U.S. and work for three years.

If Congress did not enact AgJOBS or comparable reforms in the next five years, the H-2A reforms would lapse and any workers legalized during the five-year period would be deemed undocumented again. But passage of this legislation would provide the horse industry with some stability during this five year period. It is critical the EARA provision be retained in the final version of the FY 2008 Supplemental Appropriations bill.

Draft Letter Attached

Attached is a draft letter that you can fax to your Senators asking them to support enactment of EARA in the Supplemental Appropriations bill and to oppose any effort to delete it. Please pass this on to your members and ask them to contact their Senators in support of EARA. To identify your Senators and their fax number please call the AHC or visit the Senate website at http://www.senate.gov/.

SAMPLE DRAFT

May XX, 2008

The Honorable XXXXX
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator:

The Senate Appropriations Committee recently included the Emergency Agriculture Relief Act (EARA) in the FY 2008 Supplemental Appropriations bill. The EARA is a carefully constructed compromise intended to provide a temporary five-year solution for agriculture’s alien worker problems until Congress can revisit the issue of comprehensive immigration reform.

The [organization, farm or individual], which includes XXXX members who are involved in the agri-business of breeding and raising horses, asks you to support enactment of the Emergency Agriculture Relief Act and to oppose any efforts to remove it from the Supplemental Appropriations bill. The EARA is supported by all parts of the horse industry, as well as other labor-intensive segments of America’s agricultural industries.

While we strongly support passage of permanent, comprehensive immigration reform legislation, passage of the EARA will give the agricultural industry the opportunity to streamline the H-2A admission process and ensure that the horse industry has access to the labor it desperately needs. It is important to note that this legislation would not provide permanent legal status to undocumented workers now in the U.S. since it would “sunset” after five years.

In order to maintain our activities and this industry, we rely on foreign workers who provide both semi-skilled and entry-level labor in jobs American workers are not filling. The EARA would address this labor crisis facing U.S. agriculture until a permanent solution is found.

Please support enactment of this important legislation in the Supplemental Appropriations bill. Thank you.

Sincerely,