A bill to provide disaster relief to hundreds of thousands of farm workers was introduced by U.S. Senator Alex Padilla from California.
If signed into law, the Disaster Relief for Farm Workers Act will provide compensation to people who lose wages due to emergencies beyond their control. This includes extreme weather and public health emergencies.
According to Padilla, an estimated 800-thousand farm workers labor in fields, hothouses, orchards and ranches in California. The seasonal and year-round workers are essential to California's 59-billion dollar agricultural industry.
However, few protections are available to most farm workers. This includes existing federal disaster relief programs that help workers.
The legislation has been endorsed by more than 80 organizations from across the country.
