Farmers Pay Price for Nation's Immigration Woes

The good news: There is a crop. The bad news -- Who's going to bring the crop in?

Farm Bureau leaders talk with White House officials

Thursday, August 16, 2007, 1:34 PM, Brownfield Ag News For America
Wisconsin Farm Bureau president, Bill Bruins says White House officials have every intention to push-ahead with enforcement plans. “I believe that the Administration is cracking-down on these mismatched Social Security numbers to prove to the country and to Congress that they can respond and enforce the rules that are on the books.”

The New York Times give more detail in a story by Lisa W. Foderaro.

"Plenty of Apples, but Possibly a Shortage of Immigrant Pickers"
This story details the plight of apple growers in upstate New York, but more farmers around the country are hurting for workers, too. See the Times' coverage on "Immigration and Refugees" for further detail.

Read more:
Center for America Progress -- Tough but Fair on Immigration
Center for Immigration Studies
Pew Hispanic Center

End of Summer/Catching our Breath ... But Farm Bill Debate Continues Soon

Yes, the Farm Bill passed in the House, so it's on to the Senate after Labor Day. President Bush has threatened to veto it and we find this odd. See below for what the President of the American Agriculture Movement had to say:

Foreign Companies Enjoy the Wealth of U.S. – They Should Pay Their Fair Share

WASHINGTON, Aug 23, 2007 – Larry Matlack, President of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM), has taken exception with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns on the issue of closing a tax loophole which would require U.S. subsidiaries of foreign-owned companies to pay taxes on profits made in the U.S. “Those foreign companies enjoy access to the opportunities and wealth of the United States and they should pay their fair share for that access,” said Matlack. “It is high time that we worry more about the feeding the malnourished and keeping families on their farms than whether foreign-owned companies get to keep a tax loophole which should have been closed years ago.”

Matlack directed his remarks to Johanns who has called closing the tax loophole a ‘tax increase’ which President Bush opposes. The loophole will be closed to help pay for $4 billion in critical nutrition funding in the next farm bill if provisions passed by the U.S. House on July 27 by a vote of 231-191 are enacted.

PASS THE BILL ... Facts on State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)

These facts come from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. The Institute specializes in rural studies. All data is from 2005, the most recent data available:

• Almost 4 million rural children depend upon SCHIP.
• 32 percent of children in rural areas rely on SCHIP or Medicaid compared with 26 percent of children in metro areas. This number has been rising steadily as manufacturing and other jobs with benefits dry up and private insurance becomes unaffordable.
  
• Even with SCHIP available, many continue to go without insurance.
  
• More than 1.3 million rural children were uninsured.
  
• More than half of these children were in families whose head worked full-time, year round.

To read more about this important program: Rural Children Increasingly Rely on Medicaid
and SCHIP.

Your Member of Congress is voting today ... or maybe tomorrow ... on this important bill. Please call your representative NOW to let him/her know how important it is that this bill passes:

202-224-3121
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