04/25/05 AgJobs ... when?

Some U.S. Senators who have been adamant about immigration reform, especially in modifying and reforming the existing H-2A guest worker program, have been going at it for some time. Take for example, Oregon's Ron Wyden, who says their first attempts took place back in 1998. WYDEN: We brought to the floor an amendment to overhaul this program. It was in fact was titled the AgJobs amendment. And we got sixty-eight votes in the United States Senate for that legislation. I think it was an indication then as we see today how the system really works for no one. Since then, it has been a struggle to get any sort of H-2A reform passed in Congress. Not for lack of effort, though. Idaho Senator Larry Craig has spent the last few years pushing a measure he co-sponsors with Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. The AgJobs bill, Craig-Kennedy version, would not only reform H-2A but would also allow a path to legal status for an estimated 500,000 illegal workers already in the country. That aspect of AgJobs has the support of many Democrats and moderate Republicans. But other G.O.P. members say H-2A reform is needed but not at the expense of granting out and out amnesty to illegal guest workers. Issue of that particular debate came to a head when two amendments were introduced in a recent spending bill for military appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan. Craig introduced Ag Jobs as an amendment, countering an amendment by Arizona's John Kyl and Georgia's Saxby Chambliss that supports little or no amnesty for illegal workers. When the votes were taken on the amendments, Ag Jobs garnered fifty three votes, the Kyl-Chambliss amendment twenty one, neither though gained the sixty votes needed for passage onto the appropriation bill. So in the case of Craig, is this the end of him pursuing Ag Jobs this year? Not at all. In fact, buoyed by the majority vote on Ag Jobs if not its passage, he along with Senator Kennedy plans to reintroduce the measure later in the session. CRAIG: This is a bill that for five years has been worked out between now over 509 organizations. It's interesting that Farm Bureau supports the Kyl-Chambliss approach but they don't oppose my approach. And last year, they supported my approach. In other words, they're as frustrated as all of are about this very real problem of immigration.