Friday, December 6, 2019
CapitalPress.com
7
Labor bill would hurt ag construction, attorney says
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
A farm labor bill that
recently passed the House
Judiciary Committee would
be “catastrophic” to the agri-
cultural construction and
livestock industries, says a
law firm specializing in pro-
viding H-2A-visa foreign
guestworkers for agricultural
construction.
But U.S. Rep. Dan New-
house, R-Wash., a chief
sponsor of the bill, says the
law firm and other compa-
nies are exploiting a loop-
hole in the law and should be
using non-agricultural H-2B
visas.
H-2A visas are intended
for workers for agricultural
production and the only
allowance
for agricul-
tural
con-
struction was
if it were
on property
owned
by
Kyle Farmer the employer
doing
the
work, Newhouse said.
His bill continues that pro-
vision, but a challenge by an
agricultural construction firm
in 2008 led to a settlement
with the U.S. Department
of Labor and more compa-
nies using the provision to do
agricultural construction on
property they don’t own for
the past decade.
Farmer, Farmer & Brown
Law Firm, in Marietta,
Ga., provides about 1,500
H-2A workers annually to
mostly agricultural construc-
tion companies in 23 states
including Washington and
has offices in Georgia, Texas
and Iowa.
Of 257,667 H-2A posi-
tions certified by the U.S.
Department of Labor in 2019,
probably 2,500 to 3,000 were
in agricultural construction
and mostly in building live-
stock confinements, said
Kyle Farmer, co-founder of
the law firm.
The Farm Workforce
Modernization Act, H.R.
5038, introduced by New-
house and Rep. Zoe Lofgren,
D-Calif., Oct. 30, passed the
Judiciary Committee, 18 to
12, on Nov. 21. The sponsors
hope it passes the full House
before the end of the year.
Seeking to ensure a legal
and sufficient agricultural
workforce, the bill provides
renewable visas for agricul-
tural workers in the coun-
try illegally, phases in man-
datory E-verify (electronic
verification of employ-
ment eligibility), amends the
H-2A-visa agricultural for-
eign guestworker program
and freezes the minimum
wage of H-2A workers at
2019 levels through 2020.
There are good aspects of
the bill but prohibiting agri-
cultural construction from
using H-2A is not one of
them, Farmer said.
“We have years of expe-
rience in agricultural con-
struction. We have advertised
tens of thousands of open
positions, hired hundreds of
U.S. workers, and seen the
struggles these employers
go through to fill the posi-
tions to meet their contrac-
tual needs,” Farmer said,
adding only H-2A workers
and undocumented laborers
fill the jobs.
Positions have been
advertised at $1,500 per
week and $21 an hour which
is above the H-2A minimum
wage and people don’t take
the jobs, he said.
“U.S. workers do not
want these jobs because they
are remote, require extensive
travel and are hard and dirty
work. U.S. workers who do
take them do not last,” he
said.
The
non-agricultural
H-2B visa can’t be used
because agricultural con-
struction is agricultural in
nature and there are not
enough H-2B visas to fill the
need because numbers are
capped and full, he said.
Many agricultural con-
struction companies use only
H-2A workers and with-
out the workers, the compa-
nies will not survive and the
cost of livestock production
will “dramatically increase,”
Farmer said.
But Newhouse said con-
struction companies, not in
agricultural construction and
not using H-2A workers,
complain of a competitive
disadvantage because they
have to pay higher wages.
“This company,” he said
referring to Farmer, Farmer
& Brown, has previously
used H-2B and it required
higher wages.”
Apple Education
Foundation
concludes 25th year
Northwest wildflower up for
endangered species delisting
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
WENATCHEE, Wash.
— The Washington Apple
Education
Foundation
paid tribute to more than
150 volunteers at a recent
awards breakfast as it fin-
ished the year by provid-
ing $1.1 million in schol-
arships to more than 330
students of tree fruit
industry families in Cen-
tral Washington.
The foundation has
provided $9 million in
direct scholarship aid
to more than 2,000 stu-
dents since its inception
25 years ago, said Jenni-
fer Witherbee, foundation
executive director.
“Our mission is to
impact lives through
access to educational
opportunities,” Witherbee
said.
The foundation sup-
ports local school pro-
grams for farmworker
families, but its hall-
mark is providing college
scholarships to students.
A past scholarship
recipient, Nate Rubio, of
Moses Lake, was recog-
nized as Alumni Volunteer
of the Year at the founda-
tion’s annual Volunteer
Appreciation Breakfast
at the Cave B Inn near
Quincy on Nov. 21.
Rubio grew up in Brew-
ster, attended Eastern
Washington
University
and is a human resources
manager for Washington
Fruit & Produce Co. in
Yakima. He and his family
have established a schol-
arship, through the foun-
dation for other Brewster
High School graduates.
Also at the breakfast,
Nate Fulton was named
Volunteer of the Year.
Fulton is an agribusiness
specialty practice direc-
tor for PayneWest Insur-
ance in Yakima and pre-
PORTLAND
—
A
vibrant yellow flower found
in northwest Oregon and
southwest Washington is up
for removal from the federal
list of threatened and endan-
gered species.
The U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service has proposed
delisting Bradshaw’s des-
ert parsley, citing efforts
by public and private land-
owners to help the perennial
herb recover throughout its
range.
Despite its name, Brad-
shaw’s desert parsley — also
known as Bradshaw’s loma-
tium — grows in wet prai-
ries extending from Clark
County, Wash., to the south-
ern end of Oregon’s rainy
Willamette Valley, with the
greatest density of popula-
tions near Eugene, Ore.
Historically, a combi-
nation of natural fires and
intentional burns helped
Bradshaw’s desert parsley
to thrive by keeping woody
plants from encroaching on
open habitat. The species
began to decline as fire sup-
pression and urbanization
led to a loss of undeveloped
prairies.
Bradshaw’s desert pars-
ley was listed as endangered
in 1988. At the time, there
were just 11 populations
and fewer than 30,000 total
plants.
Now the USFWS says
Bradshaw’s desert pars-
ley is flourishing again
with more than 24 popula-
tions and 11 million plants,
thanks to local partnerships
to improve habitat and com-
bat invasive species.
Paul Henson, the agen-
cy’s Oregon state director,
said the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers has done a good
job of managing its lands
for Bradshaw’s desert pars-
ley. The Corps operates 13
Willamette Basin dams for
Jennifer
Witherbee
Nate
Fulton
Nate
Rubio
Evelyn
Carreto
viously worked for Wells
Fargo and Moss Adams,
the largest CPA firm on
the West Coast.
Fulton
has
been
involved with the foun-
dation for many years
helping with fundraising,
scholarship
selections,
student mentorship and
as a workshop presenter.
He worked for his grand-
parents’ apple growing
and packing operation in
Omak in his high school
and college years.
Evelyn Carreto, a sec-
ond-year
foundation
scholarship recipient at
Big Bend Community
College in Moses Lake,
spoke at the breakfast.
She is studying nursing,
and her father works at a
Royal City Orchard.
Stemilt Growers, of
Wenatchee, received the
Group Volunteer of the
Year award for 16 Stemilt
employees participating
in foundation volunteer
work, including hosting
job shadows for students.
Collectively, founda-
tion volunteers reviewed
more than 400 scholar-
ship applications, sent
“care” packages to more
than 300 students and
participated in mentor-
ing, workshops and career
development.
c
c
c
USFWS
Bradshaw’s desert parsley.
irrigation, flood control and
wildlife.
Private landowners too
have contributed to the
recovery of habitat for Brad-
shaw’s desert parsley, Hen-
son said, with assistance
from the USFWS Partners
for Fish and Wildlife Pro-
gram and USDA Natural
Resources
Conservation
Service’s Wetland Reserve
Program.
“These efforts played a
big role in protecting almost
all sites and individuals from
further habitat loss and frag-
mentation,” Henson said.
Environmental groups
hailed the recovery of the
flower as a success story for
the Endangered Species Act.
“It’s always good news
when a plant or animal is
saved from extinction, so
today we celebrate Brad-
shaw’s desert parsley and
the (ESA),” said Tierra
Curry, a scientist with the
Center for Biological Diver-
sity based in Portland. “This
lovely wildflower is yet
another success for Ameri-
ca’s most effective conser-
vation law.”
The statement comes
th
50
c
c
c
Anniversar
as the Center for Biologi-
cal Diversity filed a notice
of intent to sue the USFWS
on Nov. 20 for failing to
decide whether 274 plants
and animals across the
country should be feder-
ally protected. The agency
has a backlog of more than
500 species awaiting ESA
decisions, according to the
group.
The public has until Jan.
27 to comment on the pro-
posed delisting for Brad-
shaw’s desert parsley. For
more information, visit
www.fws.gov/oregonfwo.
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