08/23/07 The good side of the Administration's labor initiative

Washington Ag August 23, 2007 According to Dan Fazio of the Washington State Farm Bureau the Bush Administration is talking with the home countries of foreign workers about chipping in on the costs a U.S. producer must pay under the guest worker, or H2A program. Costs like health care and housing. After all says Fazio, billions of dollars go back to countries like Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua from their citizens employed in the U.S. Fazio: "I talked to a farmer this week and he said his guest workers are earning more than $400 dollars every week, tax free. And each worker is sending home about $350 of the $400 dollars a week that they are earning. So multiply that potentially by 100, 200 or 300-thousand workers and you can see where that is a huge source of revenue for that host country." Fazio says the Farm Bureau is also working at the state level to make worker housing more available, whether it be a voucher program or something similar. Fazio: "You know if you could just give the farmer $25 a week per worker. That's for local people who want to come in and work or foreign workers, that will solve the housing situation. So there are ideas like that we re working on right now." The question is whether the benefits of a more workable guest worker program will outweigh any negative impact from tougher illegal immigrant enforcement rules. I'm Bob Hoff.