On Dec. 11, the U.S. House of Representatives, a body that\nhas managed to accomplish exactly nothing of import in this session, somehow managed\nto achieve a dubious trifecta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With bipartisan support, the House approved the ironically\nnamed Farm Workforce Modernization Act (H.R. 5038) by a vote of 260-165. It\nseems that 260 members are unaware of what century they live in, as they have\ntaken \u201cmodernization\u201d to mean eschewing technology and mechanization for\nlow-wage manual labor. The bill grants amnesty to about 1.5 million illegal\naliens, and sets a decade or more of indentured servitude to their employers as\na condition of their amnesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one vote on the House floor, lawmakers managed to reward\nillegal behavior (and likely encourage more of it), sanction regressive 17th<\/sup>\ncentury labor practices, and discourage true modernization of one of our most\nvital industries. Not bad for a day\u2019s work!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bill is also a near carbon copy of the failed and\nfraud-ridden 1986 amnesty program that legalized 1.1 million (real and alleged)\nillegal agricultural workers. Here\u2019s where Mark Twain comes in. Twain famously\nquipped that \u201cHistory doesn\u2019t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.\u201d If this bill\nis approved by the Senate and signed by President Trump (and he has hinted that\nhe would sign it), history will both repeat itself and<\/em> rhyme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 1986 bill created the Special Agricultural Worker\namnesty, known by the acronym SAW. The idea behind SAW was to provide the\npowerful agricultural industry with a legal workforce. But since agricultural\nemployers had no intention of paying their newly legalized workers competitive\nwages and providing decent working conditions, the workers promptly sought\nbetter pay and working conditions in other sectors of the economy. We know the\nrest. Since the government had no intention of enforcing laws against employing\nillegal aliens, agricultural employers just reverted to their old habit of hiring\nthe next wave of illegal aliens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n H.R. 5038 creates a new category of Certified Agricultural\nWorkers, known by the rhyming acronym, CAW. Once their period of indentured\nservitude (260 House members\u2019 idea of modernization) is fulfilled, does anyone\ndoubt that these CAW beneficiaries will follow the same path as their SAW\npredecessors?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is in everyone\u2019s interest that the American agricultural\nindustry succeed. To ensure that we can not only feed ourselves, but export our\nsurplus to the rest of the world, the industry (and apparently Congress, as\nwell) will inevitably have to adapt to the 21st<\/sup> century. Congress\nshould be incentivizing investment in efficient mechanization and other cutting\nedge technologies that will help us produce more food at lower costs. Instead,\nthe Farm Workforce \u2018Modernization\u2019 Act does exactly the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s hope there are at least 41 members of the Senate who\nhave, shall we say, a more modern approach to modernization, and kill this bill\nbefore it reaches President Trump\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Dec. 11, the U.S. House of Representatives, a body that has managed to accomplish exactly nothing of import in this session, somehow managed to achieve a dubious trifecta. With bipartisan support, the House approved the ironically named Farm Workforce Modernization Act (H.R. 5038) by a vote of 260-165. It seems that 260 members are<\/p>\n