Legislation Update -- December 2007

House examines labor. A sometimes-contentious House Ag. Committee hearing looked into the worsening labor crisis affecting U.S. farms. Labor expert and ANLA consultant James Holt told the committee that the nation’s agricultural labor policy “is in desperate need of reform. Reforms are needed in the administration of the H-2A program, the H-2A regulations and the nation’s basic agricultural immigration statues.” He said that unless Social Security number no-match regulations are permanently blocked by the courts, “it will begin having an immediate impact on agriculture in the southern growing areas this winter, and its effects will quickly march northward with the 2008 growing season.”

H-2B hits landscapers. The landscape industry will take a disproportionate hit from inaction on the H-2B program, said Tom Delaney, Professional Landcare Network government affairs director. Virtually no landscape contractors will have access to H-2B workers in the spring, PLANET said in a news release. By law, landscape contractors and other seasonal employers cannot apply to the program until 120 days or less before they need the workers to begin.

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