Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I rise to speak in support of the Fairness for Farmworkers Act, which I am reintroducing today.
Farmworkers feed our Nation. This is especially true in California, the agricultural heart of the Nation. California is the most successful State in agricultural production and has the largest population of farmworkers. In fact, more than one-third of our country's vegetables and two-thirds of fruits and nuts come from California. During COVID-19, a time of incredible hardship, farmworkers put food on the tables of millions of Americans despite working in extreme conditions and facing deep-rooted inequities in the workforce. The time to address these inequities is now.
While the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act established Federal standards for minimum wage and overtime pay, the law excluded millions of domestic and agricultural workers, who were overwhelmingly people of color. In 2016, California recognized the need to provide farmworkers overtime protection. The California overtime law, which ensures farmworkers will have an equal right to overtime pay, is the same model as this Federal bill.
Farmworkers in California and across the Nation deserve an end to discrimination in labor laws. We must undo the discriminatory exclusion of farmworkers by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act.
That is why I am proud to introduce this bill, which will improve the lives of farmworkers and their families, create equity in our food system, and benefit farming communities as the increased wages are spent in local businesses.
This bill will gradually implement overtime pay over the course of 4 years and bring greater equity to the American agricultural industry to greater prosperity to historically marginalized workers.
This legislation will also boost farming community economies as increased wages are spent in local businesses.
I want to thank Congressman Grijalva for introducing this bill with me, and I hope our colleagues will join us in support of this bill that would provide a measure of long overdue fairness for our Nation's farmworkers. ______
By Mr. DURBIN (for himself and Mr. Wicker):
S. 2261. A bill to ensure that significantly more students graduate college with the international knowledge and experience essential for success in today's global economy through the establishment of the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Program in the Department of State; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source