Farm bill markup and immigration debate

The immigration debate is beginning in the Senate, though a final vote isn't anticipated until after the Memorial Day break. From United today:

The U.S. Senate is debating comprehensive immigration reform right now on the Senate floor! The bill being debated, “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007”, S. 1348, would address: 1) enhanced border security, 2) increased enforcement of employer prohibitions in hiring illegal immigrants, 3) a transition to legal status of the 12 million illegal aliens currently in the U.S., and 4) provisions for future temporary worker programs to fill jobs where there are insufficient U.S. workers.

This is a tremendous accomplishment as key leaders from both parties who have been divisive on so many issues finally found enough common ground to support the compromise. Surveys confirm that a majority of Americans believe the current immigration system is broken and they support reasonable accommodations for legal immigration. This moderate perspective is not being heard by your member of congress and the future of comprehensive immigration reform is at risk.

It is imperative that your Senators hear from you immediately or this rare opportunity to actually find solutions to our broken immigration system will be lost. TAKE ACTION NOW!


TK: Here is full text of the legislation.


Meanwhile, the House Agriculture Committee began work on marking up the farm bill legislation, though as John Keeling pointed out, it was mainly dealing with already existing programs Here is the link to the House Ag Committee home page. The specialty crop industry won't be settling or mythical authorizations to fund proposed programs, but it will be difficult to wrest mandatory funding from the Agriculture Committee.