Washington, D.C.?EUR??,,?(R)The American Nursery & Landscape Association (ANLA) applauded Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho and Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., for recently announcing comprehensive bipartisan agricultural labor reform bills in the Senate.

Senators Craig, Kennedy and others were cheered on by ANLA members who were in town for ANLA?EUR??,,??s biennial Legislative Conference as they and Reps. Chris Cannon, R-Utah and Howard Berman, D-Calif. announced their bills at a news conference on Capitol Hill.

The Agricultural Job, Opportunity, Benefits, and Security Act of 2003 bills (S. 1645 and H.R. 3142) would reform the H-2A guest worker program and allow trained and experienced farm and nursery workers who lack proper work authorization to earn the right to permanent legal status through prospective work and lawful behavior.

Picture Caption: Senator Ted Kennedy describes the AgJOBS bill while Senator Larry Craig and others look on. Kennedy described the bill as "The most important piece of social justice and economic justice legislation that can be enacted this year."