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6 CapitalPress.com August 10, 2018 Editorials are written by or approved by members of the Capital Press Editorial Board. All other commentary pieces are the opinions of the authors but not necessarily this newspaper. Opinion Editorial Board Editor & Publisher Managing Editor Joe Beach Carl Sampson opinions@capitalpress.com Online: www.capitalpress.com/opinion O ur V iew Wildlife officials lose track of priorities B rad Thompson is the Washington deputy supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Last week he met with the Okanogan County commissioners to discuss events before and after a 25-year-old Forest Service employee was rescued by helicopter July 12 from wolves in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest of north-central Washington. Thompson came to clear the air and in the process stated the obvious. “Are there things we could have done better in hindsight? Absolutely,” Thompson said. “I don’t think we did our best in this case, and we need to do better.” Yeah, right on both counts. WDFW employees initially opposed sending a helicopter or a sheriff’s search and rescue team for fear of disturbing the pack while it’s rearing pups. The sheriff’s office says wildlife agencies were reluctant to share information, such as the woman’s name or the number of wolves she encountered. The day after the rescue, sheriff’s Deputy Steve Brown said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Gregg Kurz Stock Photo When it comes to a choice between protecting wildlife such as wolves and protecting humans, the answer should be easy, and obvious. discouraged him from investigating whether the wolves were a danger to campers and hikers and implied the deputy could be punished for violating the Endangered Species Act. Kurz said he was informing Brown about the federal law, not making a threat. Understandably, it doesn’t seem like that to the Sheriff’s Department. And the whole episode still probably doesn’t sit O ur V iew Lack of guestworker bill leaves farmers hanging C aught up in the swirl of confusion surrounding the immigration issue on Capitol Hill is a guestworker visa program that serves as a lifeline for many U.S. farmers. Called the H-2A visa, it allows farmers to bring in guestworkers from outside the U.S. to do the work that Americans will not do. To qualify to bring H-2A workers to their farm to harvest fruits or vegetables, prune trees or do other work, farmers first have to advertise the jobs to Americans. Once they can’t get enough domestic workers, they can apply for foreign workers, but they have to pay to get the paperwork through the federal government. They then must pay to get the workers to the farm and back to their home country and provide housing. They also must pay the H-2A workers a higher minimum wage — $14.12 an hour in Washington state — established by the federal government. This is to prevent farmers from using “low-cost” H-2A workers to displace domestic workers. No problem there, since finding enough domestic workers is all but impossible as tree fruit and other plantings increase. The growing U.S. economy also attracts domestic workers to the construction industry and other jobs that offer year-round employment and fringe benefits. All of that forces farmers to look overseas for help through the H-2A visa. In Washington alone, the use of H-2A visas is up nearly 60 percent this year to 30,000 guestworkers. The main reason H-2A is an issue is its high costs and the slow federal processing that farmers have encountered, especially during the Barack Obama administration. But beyond that, H-2A workers are limited in the amount of time they can be in the U.S. That means they are unavailable for year- round jobs at dairies and other agricultural occupations that are not seasonal. In the meantime, the agricultural foreign guestworker issue was split off from the immigration issue as the U.S. House tried to get its arms around the issue. An alternative program, the H-2C program, would be cheaper and provide year-round guestworkers, but set a limit low enough to make farmers worry that they would come up short. After all, the whole point of a guestworker program is to make sure farmers have enough workers, not limit them. Even though the limit would increase over time, it was seen as a poison pill by some agricultural groups that depend heavily on handwork. The result was the U.S. House fumbled another important issue, to the detriment of U.S. farmers. Though some in the House continued to work to get an improved guestworker program passed, others appeared to be intent on holding off until after the November elections. That’s too bad. It’s not like Congress has a sterling record for incumbents to run on. One would think that passing a bill to help U.S. farmers harvest the food they need to feed Americans would be a top priority among elected leaders. Apparently, though, they can wait until after the election. But U.S. farmers can’t. Dan Wheat/Capital Press File Growers have increasingly turned to H-2A visa foreign guestworkers in recent years because of labor shortages, but Congress has delayed action on improving or replacing it with a better program. President Trump stands by American farmers By SONNY PERDUE USDA I n the Olympics, if opposing athletes continuously broke the rules while the offi- cials let them get away with it, American fans would want our coaches to raise a fuss. That’s what has been happening in the arena of international trade, and President Donald Trump is rightly calling out our competi- tors for unfair play. In response, we have been slapped with unjust retaliatory tariffs, aimed disproportion- ately at American farmers. President Trump has pledged to stand by American farmers, Guest comment Sonny Perdue and the Department of Ag- riculture is helping to fulfill that promise. We will aid our producers in mitigating trade damages caused by retaliation, which is a short-term solution to give the president time to work on trade deals to benefit agriculture and all sectors of the American economy in the long run. President Trump is taking action on trade policy to open markets so American farmers can compete globally. Instead of retaliatory tariffs, the correct Chinese response would be to stop their bad be- havior. The Trump adminis- tration’s action to stand by our agricultural producers is a clear message that China cannot bul- ly farmers to coerce the United States to cave in. USDA will be authorizing up to $12 billion in programs, which is directly in line with the estimated impact of the un- justified tariffs on agriculture. These programs, in addition to our existing farm support pro- grams, will help farmers meet the costs of disrupted markets resulting from unjustified re- taliation. The assistance may come in three forms: incremen- tal payments to producers im- pacted by the retaliatory tariffs, purchase and distribution of commodities to food banks and other nutrition programs, and trade promotion, in conjunction with the private sector, to de- velop new export markets. There is no question that farmers prefer free trade over government aid. What we are seeking is a level playing field, where our agricultural home team will always be the best competitors and have the best chance to succeed on the world market. Sonny Perdue is the U.S. secretary of Agriculture. well with state officials whose first thoughts were to quickly rescue the woman, but who were discouraged by wildlife officials who were afraid of spooking the wolves. Commissioner Jim Detro said he’s skeptical and will wait to see whether the comments were more than lip service. “We’re not going to let up on this at all,” he said. “They broke the trust, and they got caught.” State and federal wildlife officials who have a responsibility to protect the wolves have a job to do — a job they take seriously. But they need to put the safety of humans first. Always. Farm bill will help farmers, ranchers weather economic storm By ANDREW WALMSLEY American Farm Bureau A storm is brewing in farm country in the form of a dragging agricultural economy, a shaky outlook for our ex- port markets and a dire ag labor shortage. Farmers and ranchers are used to dealing with tough and unpredictable weather, but that doesn’t mean they don’t hope and pray for a break in the clouds. Finally, the sun came through earlier this summer with the House and Senate passage of their respective farm bills. Of course, Congress can’t legislate agriculture out of a fifth straight year of lower net farm income, put more much-needed workers in the fields or knock down ever-expand- ing trade barriers. But, through the farm bill, lawmakers can pro- vide the certainty of farm programs that offer price and revenue protection, opportunities for conser- vation and federal crop insurance, which has be- come farmers’ most im- portant risk management tool. The farm bill also ad- dresses key issues for ru- ral communities, such as access to health care, edu- cational and business op- portunities and high-speed internet. The measure paves the way for public-private partnerships to support cutting-edge research and gives a hand to begin- ning farmers and ranchers through funding for train- ing and assistance. It’s not only farmers, ranchers and rural commu- nities who rely on the farm bill. The measure ensures critical food assistance for families and healthy foods for children and seniors in need. Failure to pass a new farm bill would put our nutritious and affordable food supply in jeopardy — Guest comment Andrew Walmsley a risk no one wants to take. We can’t forget what a strong farming and ranch- ing economy means to the entire U.S. The food and agri- culture sector supports more than 21 million jobs in this country, contrib- uting $992 billion to U.S. gross domestic product in 2015. We need people to grow the food, yes, but we need even more workers to get it from the farm and ranch to your table. Agriculture and its re- lated industries are catego- rized as the single largest U.S. manufacturing sector, representing 11 percent of all U.S. jobs. No piece of legislation is ever perfect, but the House and Senate’s re- spective farm bill efforts give us a solid framework for progress. Though we do have concerns about certain as- pects of both bills, we’re confident that they will be satisfactorily addressed by the House-Senate confer- ence committee. We look forward to working with confer- ees from both chambers to get the best possible farm bill done for rural America. A lot of hard work and give-and-take have gone into moving the farm bill process forward, and there is more ahead. We are eager to get a final measure to the pres- ident’s desk before the Sept. 30 expiration of the current farm bill, and, this time, at least, it seems the forecast is favorable. Andrew Walmsley is director of congressional relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation. This column was original- ly published in the August 2018 issue of the Kentucky Farm Bureau News. Letters policy Write to us: Capital Press welcomes letters to the editor on issues of interest to farmers, ranchers and the agribusiness community. Letters policy: Please limit letters to 300 words and include your home address and a daytime telephone number with your submission. Longer pieces, 500-750 words, may be considered as guest commentary pieces for use on the opinion pages. Guest commentary submissions should also include a photograph of the author. Send letters via email to opinions@capitalpress.com. Emailed letters are preferred and require less time to process, which could result in quicker publication. Letters also may be sent to P.O. Box 2048, Salem, OR 97308; or by fax to 503-370-4383.
