House Defeats "Guest Worker" Program
By a vote of 242 to 180, the House of Representatives decisively rejected Congressman
Richard Pombo's (R-Stockton) "Temporary Agriculture Worker Program", that would have
insured growers an adequate work force once tough immigration laws go into effect. The
Pombo amendment was attached to the Immigration Reform bill which the House passed.
The Pombo amendment would have modified the current temporary agricultural worker program by
creating a three-year alternative pilot program which would have allowed employers to hire
temporary and seasonal workers for less than 10 months at a time. The amendment included a
mandate that American workers would have been given preference during the first 25 days of
hiring, and that 25% of a worker's wages would be withheld until the worker leaves the country.
With exclusion from the House Bill, the "Temporary Agricultural Worker Program will find
Passage in the Senate much more difficult. President Clinton has threatened a veto if the
"guest worker" program is included in the immigration reform legislation.
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