Migrant-worker bill passes hurdle
| By Alan Franklin - Apr 25th, 2008 at 9:11 am EDT |
So sorry, Rep. Bruce, but unless you want to pick those Rocky Ford melons and Palisade peaches...
Foreign fieldworker bill clears Senate committee
Don't forget that this bill is just one piece of the solution to a problem that began when Colorado Democrats decided the best way to counter GOP anti-immigrant posturing ahead of the '06 election was to join them. Result? Migrant ag workers fled Colorado, and farmers across the state are experiencing desperate labor shortages. It's harming the economy.
Which you would think Republicans would care about. Some do, like Rep. Marsha Looper, this bill's co-sponsor. Others, like Bruce, will gladly squander the chance to do right by our farmers so they can make puerile asses of themselves.
And sadly, there always seem to be more Bruce Republicans (that is, Schultheises, Lundbergs, Listons, Lamberts, etc. etc.) in the legislature than there are Loopers...
Foreign fieldworker bill clears Senate committee
Colorado farmers who are trying to get more workers onto their fields are one step closer to a new state program to help them.
A measure that would create a pilot program designed to match migrant workers with the Colorado farms and orchards that need workers cleared a Senate committee on Thursday.
That measure, HB1325, cleared the Colorado House earlier this week amid some controversy, but not because of the bill itself.
Rep. Douglas Bruce, R-Colorado Springs, was the only lawmaker to speak out against it, but was cut off from speaking after he called migrant workers "illiterate peasants."
Regardless of his objections, and those from opponents who testified against it in the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee on Thursday, that panel approved it on a 5-0 vote.
"One of the issues that keeps coming to the top of the list of some of the greatest needs in agriculture today is the situation over being able to find adequate labor," Agriculture Commissioner John Stulp said of the bill introduced by Senate President Pro Tem Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, and Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan. "No part of the state seems to be immune from experiencing a labor shortage."
Don't forget that this bill is just one piece of the solution to a problem that began when Colorado Democrats decided the best way to counter GOP anti-immigrant posturing ahead of the '06 election was to join them. Result? Migrant ag workers fled Colorado, and farmers across the state are experiencing desperate labor shortages. It's harming the economy.
Which you would think Republicans would care about. Some do, like Rep. Marsha Looper, this bill's co-sponsor. Others, like Bruce, will gladly squander the chance to do right by our farmers so they can make puerile asses of themselves.
And sadly, there always seem to be more Bruce Republicans (that is, Schultheises, Lundbergs, Listons, Lamberts, etc. etc.) in the legislature than there are Loopers...
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The problems it is trying to address are real. A lot of the right wingers are against this bill because if it is passed and ends up working like it's envisioned to work, it will shoot holes in the scare tactic arguments of Bruce and his ilk. They are HORRIFIED by the possibility of rational people working out a rational agreement with PEOPLE NOT FROM AROUND HERE OH NOES!!11!!1