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“DUE PROCESS FOR OREGON'S FARMERS” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Labor was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H6835 on Dec. 18, 2012.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
DUE PROCESS FOR OREGON'S FARMERS
(Mr. WALDEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
Mr. WALDEN. Mr. Speaker, over 2 weeks ago, I came to this floor to ask for answers from the Department of Labor on behalf of Oregon farmers. Well, yesterday, I did get a letter from the Secretary, which I appreciated, but it was not answering our questions from the delegation. It was congratulating me on my reelection.
122 days ago, nearly every member of the Oregon delegation, Republicans and Democrats, wrote the Labor Secretary after hearing reports of so-called ``hot goods'' enforcement tactics that stopped shipments of highly perishable berries with little opportunity for appeal.
One farmer was told verbally that a shipment was on hold because the inspector determined it was impossible for an individual picker to pick as much as records showed. But to lift the hold, the farm was directed to pay an undetermined amount in fines and back wages and sign a consent judgment requiring the farm to ``waive further findings of fact''--without even getting an explanation of alleged violations.
The farm was left with the choice of paying the fine and signing the consent judgment or allowing a few hundred thousand dollars of perishable produce to spoil. In the end, the farm felt it had little choice but to pay the $170,000 and sign the consent judgment so that the fruit could be shipped.
In light of these and other complaints, our delegation asked the Department for detail on its policies and procedures for making these decisions; 122 days later, we've yet to get an answer. That's not right.
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