10-1 NWR Immigration Labor Reform

This is your Northwest report for Tuesday, November 1st I'm David Sparks and at a recent Smithsonian Food History Roundtables meeting, Carlos Castaneda, a farm labor contractor discussed some of the labor challenges he faces on a daily basis. In his presentation entitled "The Politics of Farm Labor" he detailed some of the issues in the sector and talked about agriculture's need for immigration reform. Among other things, he told the American Farm Bureau Federation that the issue is not getting its due attention. "We are not doing a very good job educating our constituents across the nation. Because of that, our constituents are not pressuring local legislators. This is important to our nation. For the first time in history, we have the opportunity to actually solve a huge problem." He says there have been efforts at legislative reform that have slipped through the cracks. "We saw Senate Bill 744 come forward which, in my opinion, addressed all of the concerns we had from both sides of the aisle. As you know that was a bipartisan bill. But in today's political environment, it lost steam." That bill passed the Senate in 2013 in a 68 to 32 vote of the so-called "gang of eight bill" was never taken up in the house.

In its recent report, Farms and Free Enterprise: A Blueprint for Agricultural Policy, The Heritage Foundation calls for the elimination of constructive energy programs in the next Farm Bill. The Agri-Pulse news network states that, in their opinion this is a nonsensical proposition.