12/01/05 FB leader on farm labor and immigration

Washington Ag December 1, 2005 President Bush has spent a couple of days this week along the southern U.S. border trying to build support for comprehensive immigration reform that would include increased enforcement and a guest worker program. Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, who spoke at the recent Washington Farm Bureau Convention, says the clash of the issues of immigration and farm labor has a lot of people frustrated. And Stallman told the convention some in Congress appear more interested in having an election issue than getting something done. Stallman: "Stallman: "So I urge you to contact your congressional members and tell them it is not enough to talk about an issue or use it for an election. We need for Congress to sit down and work together in a bipartisan manner to get something signed into law." Under the President's guest worker plan foreign workers already in the country illegally could apply for three-year work visas. They could apply for one three-year extension but would have to return to their home countries for a year before applying for another permit. Stevens County residents interested in strategies to reduce fecal-coliform bacteria in the Colville River are invited to a meeting to discuss those strategies on December 5th at the Community Colleges of Spokane's Colville Campus from six to eight p.m. Among the items in the clean up plan are voluntary actions to keep livestock away from the river and streams. I'm Bob Hoff.