BILL REQ. #:  S-1580.1 

Read first time 02/12/09.   Referred to Committee on Agriculture & Rural Economic Development.

     AN ACT Relating to creating the community agricultural worker safety grant program; adding a new section to chapter 15.04 RCW; creating a new section; and providing an expiration date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   The legislature finds that agricultural workers are challenged not only in finding full-time, year-round work, but also face difficulties in upgrading their agricultural skills. The legislature also finds that the agricultural industry's demand for skilled workers far outnumbers the current supply. In addition, the legislature finds that despite recent advances in the safety of agricultural production, additional training of agricultural workers should assist the agricultural sector in ongoing efforts to reduce occupational injuries.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 15.04 RCW to read as follows:
     Subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this specific purpose, the department shall administer the community agricultural worker safety grant program, to be implemented by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit opportunities industrialization center of Washington. As grant recipient, the center shall work with the agricultural industry to provide practical, hands-on training for the state's agricultural workers in tractor and farm machinery skills and safety, pesticide training, adult basic skills, civics, English as a second language, commercial drivers' licensing, and other related topics. The grant recipient may receive up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars per year.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   This act expires July 1, 2013.