On May 15th the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the Emergency Agricultural Relief Act (EARA). You may recall that Yankee Farm Credit has long supported the AgJOBS legislation. AgJOBS was included in comprehensive immigration reform legislation which was proposed last year but failed to pass the Senate. The EARA is basically "AgJOBS Lite." The main difference is that while AgJOBS provided a path to eventual citizenship, the EARA does not. The purpose of EARA is to provide temporary relief for a five year period, to give Congress time to work out more comprehensive immigration reform. Yankee Farm Credit supports the EARA.
The EARA may come up for a vote in the full Senate within the next few days. You can support the EARA by using the web site http://www.saveusfarms.org/ to send e-mail to your Senators.
UPDATE 5/21/08: The EARA was removed from the Senate Iraq War Supplemental funding bill at the request of Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ). Sen. Menendez favors comprehensive immigration reform, and opposes targeted legislation such as the EARA.
