SAF Wednesday E-Brief - 05/23/2007  (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
•  About E-Brief's New Look
Headlines
•  Senate Debates Immigration Reform
•  Issues Delay Marketing Initiative Movement
•  SAF Helps Florists Reach Out to Funeral Directors
•  Parenting Advice: Choose Flowers
•  Dedicated Industry Leader Dies
Newsmakers
•  SAF Lobbyists Featured in D.C. Newspaper
•  Florida Wholesaler Shines in News Story
Tips and Tools
•  Wedding Show Searches for Florists
•  Strong Sales, Happy Employees?
Trendwatch
•  Climate Change Shifts Growing Zones
Reader Feedback
•  Mother's Day
Regular Features
•  Product Spotlight: Digital Local Area Marketing Kit Materials
•  Talk on the Forums
•  Florists Believe Mother's Day Sales Improved This Year
•  Fresh Flowers Dominate Mother's Day Floral Gifts

Senate Debates Immigration Reform

The Senate introduced a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform bill, which is said to include language from AgJOBS, the bill SAF has long supported. The "Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2007" is "a vehicle for reform that agriculture should aggressively support" says Jeanne Ramsay, SAF's senior director of government relations.

"I am optimistic that they are working on [comprehensive reform] -- it's a step in the right direction," says Leo Roozen, AAF, former chairman of SAF's Government Relations Committee and president of Washington Bulb in Mt. Vernon, Wash. Roozen, however, is withholding final judgment on the effort, for now. "You can't take a position on something if you don't know what it's going to look like."

In a statement, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) noted that most of the provisions of AgJOBS are incorporated in the new compromise, including an improved guest-worker program and earned adjustment (Her staff has confirmed this, but some provisions are still under discussion.) Feinstein is a long-time supporter of AgJOBS.

"The situation is very fluid right now," says Ramsay. "Job No. 1 is to protect our AgJOBS provisions." 

Last Wednesday, SAF members Jim Rietkirk of Kallisto Greenhouses in Fontana, Calif., (representing the California Farm Bureau), and Bill Kluth of Tagawa Greenhouses in Brighton, Colo., (representing Green Industries of Colorado and the Colorado Nursery and Greenhouse Association) joined about 150 growers at the Agriculture Coalition for Immigration Reform's (ACIR) legislative "fly-in" to garner support for AgJOBS.

"It's important that we get legislation done -- so we can have a workforce we can count on," Rietkirk says. He hopes the bill retains the provision for an employment eligibility verification system with new anti-fraud measures.

"We have what appear to be the right papers on everybody," he says, "but with this we could make sure."

Don Darby of Darby Greenhouses in Jacksonville, Texas, however, is less optimistic about the compromise. "I don't think it's workable," he says, citing the $5,000 fine on immigrants who step forward and apply for a visa as one of the problems he sees with the bill.  "That isn't going to fly -- most Americans can't come up with $5,000."

At the same time, Janet Kister of Sunlet Nursery in Fallbrook, Calif., acknowledges that no one bill will please everyone, but "we have to work with what we have, or we are going to have nothing -- and the status quo is unacceptable."

The Senate is debating the bill through the end of the week. Senators will resume the debate in early June, after the Memorial Day recess.

SAF's Government Relations Department encourages all members to write to Congress and urge their senators to support the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2007. For more information, contact Jeanne Ramsay at jramsay@safnow.org

--Vanessa Machir
vmachir@safnow.org