Editorial: Lack of guestworker bill leaves farmers hanging

Apparently, Congress can afford to put off revamping the H-2A guestworker program. But farmers can’t.Called the H-2A visa, it allows farmers to bring in guestworkers from outside the U.S. to do the work that Americans will not do. To qualify to bring H-2A workers to their farm to harvest fruits or vegetables, prune trees or do other work, farmers first have to advertise the jobs to Americans. Once they can’t get enough domestic workers, they can apply for foreign workers, but they have to pay to get the paperwork through the federal government. They then must pay to get the workers to the farm and back to their home country and provide housing. They also must pay the H-2A workers a higher minimum wage — $14.12 an hour in Washington state — established by the federal government. This is to prevent farmers from using “low-cost” H-2A workers to displace domestic workers.  Though some in the House continued to work to get an improved guestworker program passed, others appeared to be intent on holding off until after the November elections.That’s too bad. It’s not like Congress has a sterling record for incumbents to run on. One would think that passing a bill to help U.S. farmers harvest the food they need to feed Americans would be a top priority among elected leaders.