Transcripts For CSPAN U.S. House Of Representatives U.S. Hou

CSPAN U.S. House Of Representatives U.S. House Of Representatives July 13, 2024

The speaker pro tempore the yeas are 227 and the nays are 189. The previous question is ordered. The question is on adoption of the resolution. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. Mr. Burgess i won that on a voice vote. I request the yeas and nays. The speaker pro tempore yeas and nays are requested. Those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. A sufficient number having arisen, yeas and nays are ordered. Members will record their votes by electronic device. This is a fiveminute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore on this vote the yeas are 222, and the nays are 190. Adopted. Ution is the motion ion, heard. On is pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the Unfinished Business is the motion to lay on the table the motion to reconsider he vote on the question of passage of h. R. 729 on which the ordered. Nays were the clerk will now report the title of the bill. The clerk Union Calendar number 729, a bill to amend the Coastal Zone Management act to authorize grants to Indian Tribes to further tribal coastal zone objectives and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore the question is on the motion to table offered by the gentlewoman minnesota, ms. Mccollum. Members will record their votes by electronic device. This will be a fiveminute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore on this vote the yeas are 229 and the nays are 192. The motion is adopted. For what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise . Mr. Mcgovern mr. Speaker, i have a motion at the desk. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the motion. Cgovern of mr. M massachusetts moves to adoption of House Resolution 758. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman recognition . Seek mr. Engel i have a motion at the desk. The peaker pro tempore clerk will report the mr. Nadler i have a motion at the desk. The speaker pro tempore the motion. Ll report the the clerk mr. Nadler of new york moves to table the motion to reconsider. The peaker pro tempore question is on the motion to table. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. Arizona. Eman from i seek the yeas and nays. I request the yeas and nays. The speaker pro tempore the are requested. Those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. A sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. The members will record their by electronic device. This is a fiveminute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore the eas are 194 and the nays the speaker pro tempore on this vote, the yeas are 196 and the nays are 170. The motion is adopted. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition . Mr. Nadler pursuant to house 5038ution 758, i call h. R. Farm workforce modernization act of 2019 and ask for its immediate consideration. The clerk h. R. 5038 a bill to amend the immigration and nationality act to provide for terms and conditions for nonimMigrant Workers performing Agricultural Labor or services and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to House Resolution 758 in lieu of the amendment in the fate of a substitute recommended by the committee on the judiciary, an amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the rules Committee Print 11642 modified by the amendment printed in part c of house report 116334 is adopted and the bill as amended is considered read. The bill as amended shall be debatable for one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member on the committee on the judiciary. The gentleman from new york, mr. Nadler mr. Nadler i ask members the speaker pro tempore the gentleman will suspend. The gentleman from new york, mr. Nadler and the gentleman from colorado, mr. Buck, each will control 30 minutes. The tchare recognizes the gentleman from new york. Mr. Nadler i yield myself three minutes. I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on h. R. 5038 the speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Nadler i now yield myself three minutes. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Nadler h. R. 5038 the Farm Workforce modernization act is vital legislation that will address Critical National importance, the growing labor challenges damaging the Agricultural Sector. Solving this issue is crucial not only from an economic standpoint but to matters of National Security. The less we grow our own food we become vulnerable to fluctuating market prices and increased national debt. Food imports account for 32 of the fredge vegetables and 55 of the fresh fruits that we consume. Systemic labor challenges are one of the main reasons in this increase in agricultural imports. The United States has seen a decline in the number of family farmworkers and fewer u. S. Workers are turning to farm work as their chosen pursuit. Laborers days farm are foreignborn. This has not reflected the needs of our economy. Undocumented workers now comprise about half of the Farm Workforce but living and working in the state of uncertainty and fear which contributes to the destabilization of farms across the nation. H. R. 5038 addresses these challenges head on. The bill provides temporary status for current farmworkers with a pass to a green card. The bill addresses nations future labor needs by modernizing the h2a temporary visa program and freezing conditions for all farmworkers. We have tried to solve this issue through legislation. I am pleased today that we have a bipartisan balanced solution, one that we should be able to support. This bill is a victory for farmers who have suggled with persistent labor challenges for decades. It is a victory for farmworkers who have worked to grow and harvest food for our nation without a guarantee they can remain. No acceptable solution can fail to deal with this reality. H. R. 5038 is the right solution. I hope my colleagues will find the courage to vote today in favor of providing a seat at americas table for those who are responsible for providing the food that we serve on all our tables. I want to thank my friend and colleague, mrs. Love green the chair of the immigration subcommittee for her commitment to the bipartisan process that led to todays vote on the Farm Workforce modernization act. I urge all of my colleagues to do what is right and support this bill. I reserve the balance of my time. I ask unanimous consent that mrs. Love green did contain the majority of the time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman will control the time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from colorado is recognized. Thank you for yielding me to discuss the Farm Workforce modernization. Said last month in markup, this is of issues of great me and my district in eastern colorado. Colorado is home to one of the agriculture economies in the country. We have some of the best melons southeast d in colorado, and no one bypasses a good colorado steak, but to get table, our the farmers and ranchers need help. How our ountless times farmers find Reliable Workers to crops. Ndujar vest mr. Buck my republican colleagues and i are committed to crafting a solution to ensure nations agriculture employers have a stable labor supply. Meesht my friends work to solve a clear problem i appreciate my friends work to clear problem. I appreciate their efforts to gives our ution that agricultural employers the labor and resource s they resources they need but this us is not the answer. My colleagues will tell us how they have worked to make the better, but this bill is the same fundamentally flawed ill that came before us in judiciary a few weeks ago. Whats worse is that house leadership put this bill on the rule, nder a closed without an amendment process. There are a number of problems with the bill that a rigorous and thoughtful amendments could address, but in a will not be happening today. But that will not be happening today. Most notely, we dont know most notably, we dont know how many people will be on a pathway to citizenship. And while i want to think that all our workers are good people, dont know that. Thathairperson will assert aliens seeking status will need to have a clean record in order on a pathway to citizenship but this is simply not true. 5038 allows an illegal alien to receive an agriculture to get on a and pathway to citizenship even if they have been convicted of two involving moral terp uesdayed, controlled substance possession or involved in prostitution or trafficking. We saw the democrats vote down representativeom chabot that would have made an unavailable for charged withey are d. U. I. You cant tell me that people advantage of this system if you reject amendments that bar criminals from taking advantage system. 5038 lly, h. R. Additionally, h. R. 5038 allows individuals to apply for legal a work permit which is not limited to agricultural more than an ttle affidavit that they worked for 1,035 or 180 workdays over the past two years. Applicants will have worked less than six hours per four months over a twoyear period. Appreciate that my colleagues petitioned for a higher standard, preponderance of the evidence. Owever, the underlying provisions havent change. Meetill allows for them to that prepond rance burden, including their own affidavit of history, as long as they meet a just and reasonable standard. Let me remind everyone here that it ting case law says that essentially requires adjudicators to accept a more on based on nothing than an individuals word. This is the same evidenceary unacceptly evidentiary standard used in the legalization bill which led to widespread fraud and even amnesty for one of the bombers. De center workert an agricultural at all but a taxi driver in new york city. While i appreciate the to work ons efforts here, this change wont solve these problems. My friends on the other side of rejected also representative armstrongs amendment that would specify certified Agricultural Workers will only be eligible to work in agriculture. While the individual may receive status as an agricultural worker, there is no guarantee they wont immediately find a in another industry as soon as possible. Dditionally, the bill does nothing to stop potential Social Security fraud. Individuals who have been fraudulently using a valid number, curity sometimes for many years, to obtain work status and benefits off without even so much as a slap on the wrist. This fails our adjudicators at scis to prevent them from ccessing the background database when someone poses a Public Safety risk. E need not ensure our investigators have all the information they need to ensure we are not allowing felons with individuals to remain in the country. The bill also provides a handout o the trial attorneys and presents an increased risk of litigation for agricultural h2a rs by giving workers a private right of action. The provision ignores current h2as programs existing administrative process employment claims and fails to provide employers the opportunity to cure violations go forward. T may this is fundamentally unfair to the hardworking farmers, who care nd ranchers about their employees. I ask my colleagues, would you fixed having the problem or do you just want to give trial attorneys another opportunity to sue . To lly, the bill fails achieve the desired results on a number of provisions that have he potential to truly help our agricultural employers. The authors promise to treamline the application process, address wage problems, and provide a yearround provide yearround industries a lasting labor solution. The bill streamlines data entry h2a applications but does nothing to encourage concurrent review of h 2a h2a applications. The adjudication process the same. I appreciate my colleagues procedures and included a pool of 20,000 visas for yearround industries, sheep, ng dairy farmers, and goat herders. Ut this falls far short of industries needs and fails to meet the problematic portion of existing law. Once again, i am glad my colleagues are trying to solve this problem. Truly want to support the farmers, growers, dairy men in my district and throughout the country. E need to find a solution that ensures our agricultural employers have a reliable labor pool. Want to gues and i strike an ag labor agreement. Nfortunately, this bill is fatally flawed, and i must oi ose it in must oppose it in its current form. I reserve the balance of my time. He speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentlewoman from california is recognized. Ms. Lofgren thank you, mr. Speaker. Yield myself three minutes. I rise in strong support of this bill today. Am proud of the bipartisan work that was done to get us to this point. Epresentatives newhouse, simpson, lamalfa, diazbalart, pton, so many others on the epublican side, here, panetta, carbajal, escobar i better stop, because there are more this. E who worked on we toiled on this legislation for almost a year. Easy to not always find xhcommon ground even when u have a common goal, but if you to each other, if you work hard, you can get it done. Several decades in failing to accomplish anything arena. This is a chance to solve a aoblem for america that needs solution. E it is the product of and ill negotiation say, also, among stakeholders. We had the united farm workers discussing g and points of concern with growers farmers all ss and across the United States. You know, i grew up in a union i was taught to respect collective bargaining, wages, n it comes to hours, and working conditions, the union and all those robust s had a discussion. And our Bipartisan Group decided o respect the work that they put into it. This bill is a compromise. I would exactly what have written, but it does workforce. He we have farm workers whove been here for a very long time their papers living in fear and some cases being arrested and deported. Need to allow them to get an agricultural worker visa that is temporary and renewable so they can do the work we need them to do and that their employers need them to do. We also need to stabilize the program, which this bill does. T simplifieses and it also stable simple fiez and stabilizes wages. Searchifies and stabilizes wages. Workable system, you ought to be willing to enforce that system. We have what we have in this bill is when these reforms are implemented, we will institute everify program on the i think re sector and thats the right thing to do. The Ranking Member on the subcommittee has raised a couple of issues and i want to deal them just briefly. You know, we have robust against krim nationality in in criminalality in this bill, and the bars we to note have put in this bill is substantially more than was in proposed by representative goodlatte that most republicans voted for in the last congress. Anything have additional. We do. We have security bars. Are ve criminal bars that additional i yield myself an seconds. L 15 any felony conviction, any aggravated felony conviction, than two misdemeanors of any kind, we have the ability of he department of Homeland Security to simply deny the visa theheres any concern about conduct of the applicant. This is a good bill. We should support it, and i time. E the balance of my the speaker pro tempore the gentlewomans time has expired. He reserves the balance of her time. The chair will now recognize the gentleman from colorado. R. Buck thank you, mr. Speaker. I recognize my friend from mcclintock. Mr. I yield mr. Mcclintock three minutes. The speaker pro tempore the yielded three minutes from the gentleman from colorado. Mr. Mcclintock i thank the gentleman for yielding. Warns us r, history that nations which either cannot or will not secure their borders simply arent around very long. And if we will not enforce our our borders aws, mean nothing. A rica ceases to become unique nation and simply becomes a vast International Territory mexico. Canada and now, i understand agricultures need for labor, especially in so tight a labor market as our blossoming trump economy has created. Ago, the basero program come toseasonal workers america, be protected under our laws and provided with a in rful incentive to return the form of a significant financial deposit when the season ended. But that program could only work when our immigration laws are uniformerly enforced. Instead, this bill ignores rewards anyone whos illegally crossed our borders both with amnesty and a path to citizenship as long as they claim to have part time in the agricultural secture for the last two years. Two ctor for the last years. It rewards them for a pathway to citizenship. As a practical matter, we can expect claimants will have very scrutiny to n no the veracity of their claims. We can expect that once amnesty, theyll then leave the fields for higher paid competitionn direct with American Workers and we can expect a new wave of illegal to take s coming here their places with the full expectation that they, too, will with tely be rewarded amnesty and citizenship. Secure our borders, uniformly enforce our immigration laws, and provide foreign seasonal labor with the opportunity to work and the incentive to return to their countries when that work is done. And if they wish to become american citizens, we ask that they follow the law as millions of legal immigran

© 2025 Vimarsana