Percolating nicely

The produce title to the farm bill is "percolating along nicely," John Keeling of the National Potato Council told me just this morning. Introduction of what are essentially companion bills in the House and Senate is expected next week. He said the House and Senate bills will be substantially the same, with 85% shared components important to the specialty crop industry.

One difference: The Senate wanted to do a little different approach on conservation to work with the Senate Ag chairman. Meanwhile, all-important budget numbers are expected to be released later in March, Keeling noted.

NRA's shotgun approach

I visited with Donna Garren of the National Restaurant Association this morning. As I noted in a previous post, the NRA is looking at endorsing food safety standards of a sort.

"Produce Safety & The Foodservice Industry: A Farm-to-Table Conference" in Monterey, Calif., March 29 to March 30, 2007. One of the "topics of discussion" is "the development of restaurant-industry requirements for produce vendors."

I asked Donna - former food safety whiz at at United and now the NRA's top health/food safety guru - about the standards.

Garren said she wasn't at liberty to reveal who is developing the standards, but said the group working on the document includes staffers of respected foodservice companies with considerable scientific credentials.

She said the NRA itself wasn't developing the standards per se, but would likely endorse them. She expected the standards to run between 20 and 30 pages.

"Anything we share at the conference will be strictly draft; there will still time to be able to have potential input from stakeholders," she said.

Garren also corrected the perception advance by some that these will be mandatory hard and fast rules that NRA members must endorse and abide by.

"That's far from the truth," she said. NRA may endorse a document to their members that can be used in creation and enhancement of existing food safety specifications, she said.

Developing....

Mismatch rule held up by OMB

Sharon Hughes of the NCAE said the proposed Department of Homeland Security rule of last June called "Safe-Harbor Procedures for Employers Who Receive a No-Match Letter" is currently on hold at Office of Management and Budget.

Hughes said DHS wants to gain access to records from the IRS/Social Security Administration of employers who receive mismatch letters. At the same time, they want to clearly spell out (and add to) the responsibilities of employers. Although it is being held up for now by OMB - perhaps in anticipation of progress on comprehensive immigration - Hughes said DHS is anxious to implement it.

Here is how the rule is summarized when it was proposed:


The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement proposes to amend the regulations relating to the unlawful hiring or continued employment of unauthorized aliens. The amended regulation describes the legal obligations of an employer, under current immigration law, when the employer receives a no-match letter from the Social Security Administration or the Department of Homeland Security. It also describes ‘‘safe-harbor’ procedures that the employer can follow in response to such a letter and thereby be certain that DHS will not find that the employer had constructive knowledge that the employee referred to in the letter was an alien not authorized to work in the United States. The proposed rule adds two more examples of situations that may lead to a finding that an employer had such constructive
knowledge to the current regulation’s definition of ‘‘knowing.’’ These additional examples involve an employer’s failure to take reasonable steps in response to either of two events:
(1) The employer receives written notice from the Social Security Administration (SSA) that the combination of name and social security account number submitted to SSA for an employee does not match agency records; or (2) the employer receives written notice from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that the immigration-status or employment-authorization documentation presented or referenced by the employee in completing Form
I–9 was not assigned to the employee according to DHS records. (Form I–9 is retained by the employer and made available to DHS investigators on request, such as during an audit.) The proposed rule also states that whether DHS will actually find that an employer had constructive knowledge that an employee was an unauthorized alien in a situation described in any of the regulation’s examples will depend on the totality of relevant circumstances. The ‘‘safe-harbor’’ procedures include attempting to resolve the no-match and, if it cannot be resolved within a certain period of time, verifying again the employee’s identity and employment authorization through a specified process.

TK: Despite the potential hazards for ag employers in the DHS rule, don't underestimate its appeal to John Q. Public. One Texas citizen wrote this comment about the proposed rule in the federal docket:


"The only reason I could see where one would not want to send a " no match" letter to Homeland Security would be if we are not really serious about identifying undocumented aliens and one would just like to talk about security but doesn't really want to take action. "

Patience of Job

Sharon Hughes of the National Council of Agricultural Employers is one of those rare people who is very calming to talk to. She always seems to have great composure. I never get the sense she is going to scream and pull her hair out. It's a good thing, or her work in lobbying for AgJobs legislation may have driven her mad by now.

She told me this morning that the latest word from Capitol Hill is that the introduction of comprehensive immigration reform legislation has been delayed one week, and perhaps two weeks. Both the House and Senate are expected to introduce similar bills on comprehensive legislation, and AgJobs is expected to be attached to the legislation as it begins to progress.
"Right now we are trying to encourage all the growers to keep up the drumbeat," she said. A shortage of workers and lost crops are a reality for more and more growers, and Hughes noted apple growers were lobbying Congress hard last week on the issue. Hughes said President Bush has made immigration a talking point on his Latin American trip.
"He is really pushing to get comprehensive done, and whatever weight he adds to the issue will benefit us as well." she said.

Morning noon or night

It doesn't matter when immigration gets done, but it better happen this year. Why is it that even the most positive vibes about the potential for passing immigration reform - such as those that have surfaced this week - leaving me wondering how real the chance for success is?

Here is a link to Dallas Morning News coverage of the visit of President Bush to Mexico.

An excerpt:

"My pledge to you and your government, but more important to the people of Mexico, is I'll work as hard as I possibly can to pass comprehensive immigration reform," Mr. Bush told Mexican President Felipe Calderón during opening ceremonies for their two-day visit in this Yucatan Peninsula tourist haven.
"I remind my fellow citizens that family values do not stop at the Rio Grande River, that there are decent, hardworking, honorable citizens of Mexico who want to make a living for their families," Mr. Bush said.
In response, Mr. Calderón did not mince words. In polite but firm terms, he reminded Mr. Bush of the two countries' integrated economies and interdependent labor market, based on demand and supply of Mexican workers, and said, "Therefore, migration might not be stopped, and certainly not by decree."
And breaking his own vow to not make immigration the central theme of relations with the U.S. as Mr. Fox did during his six-year presidency, Mr. Calderón reminded Mr. Bush that as a native of the central state of Michoacan, he knows all too well the pain of families separated by immigration policies.


TK: As its leader well knows, Mexico must create more opportunities within Mexico for its own people. Yet both countries need U.S. immigration reform now.

Under the category of misery loves company, did you notice in TK Hot Picks the news from New Zealand about the shortage of harvest labor there?

A quote from the story:

"It's getting more and more difficult every year and we're going to need to import labour to fill these positions, desperately."