Spudman: Specialty ag group letter urges congressional action on workforce reform

According to reporting by VGN sister site Spudman, a leading agriculture advocacy group recently sent a letter to Congress stating that legislation proposing reform to the H-2A guest worker program is vital and can’t come soon enough.

The National Potato Council (NPC) joined more than 450 agricultural organizations in a letter (.pdf) calling for the swift passage of H.R. 9535, the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act (SAWA).

The legislation was introduced by House Agriculture Committee chair Glenn “GT” Thompson in July.

The bill represents the first statutory reform to the H-2A program that allows non-immigrant foreign workers to perform temporary agricultural jobs in the U.S. when domestic workers are unavailable in 40 years.

“The need to implement SAWA is urgent, and the cost of inaction is high,” the letter reads in part. “The continued and irreversible loss of American farms has and will continue to depress the economies of rural communities across the nation, while straining the United States’ ability to feed itself — a national security risk exemplified by recent supply chain disruptions. Rural and urban communities across the country simply cannot afford to have Congress kick the can down the road again.”

Speaking to Spudman on Aug. 13, NPC chief operating officer Mike Wenkel emphasized the importance of a SAWA provision that would limit year-over-year Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWR) increases to no more than 3.25%, while capping decreases at 1.5%. 

“Getting that cap in there and making it part of the law really is going to provide that long-term cost certainty that the growers really need as they’re making plans — in most cases at least six to nine months out — of what their cost of production is going to be,” Wenkel said. 

SAWA addresses labor challenges through three main pillars:

• Expanding access: The bill removes the requirement that agricultural work must be seasonal. It retains the temporary designation, defining it as a job contract of 350 days or less. Additionally, it updates what qualifies as “agricultural labor or services” and transfers the authority to further refine that definition to the Secretary of Agriculture.
• Controlling costs: The legislation codifies recent reforms to the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) methodology and simplifies overall program requirements.
• Streamlining operations: The bill requires federal agencies to build a unified online platform to ensure timely communication and tracking for employers. It clearly outlines agency roles to eliminate regulatory duplication and offers flexibility to accommodate diverse production needs while maintaining rules-based standards.

Expanding agricultural work parameters would be especially beneficial to potato growers and processors, Wenkel said.

“(For) potato producers across the country, particularly in the fresh market but really in all sectors, it expands that eligible class of work to include grading and packing activities that happen off-farm,” he said. “If you look at the definition, for a job to be eligible (for H-2A workers), today the activity has to happen on-farm, and it requires that more than 50% of the product being handled in that facility is grown on that individual’s farm.”

Under proposed SAWA changes, “regardless of the location of the packing shed and regardless of whose potatoes they are, as long as you’re not changing the format of the product, that activity is eligible,” Wenkel said. “When we look at packing sheds that might have been built and positioned along a railroad track or near a highway — those jobs are quite often in places where people have problems finding workers. Those facilities now could use the H-2A program if they can prove there’s no local employment available.

“It really broadens the ability and expands access within our sector of agriculture. That’s one place it certainly could benefit growers in meeting their labor needs.”

“It really broadens the ability and expands access within our sector of agriculture. That’s one place it certainly could benefit growers in meeting their labor needs.”   

Signatories of the Aug. 10 letter include the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Hort, the U.S. Apple Association, the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association and the International Fresh Produce Association.

In a statement, Dean Gibson, NPC vice president of legislative affairs, urged growers to contact their representatives to voice support for the legislation — a message Wenkel echoed.

“We’re either going to get a system in place that allows people to come to the country and work and do that legally, or we’re going to be in the position of farms going out of business and that production moving overseas and us importing our food supply,” he said. 

— Melinda Waldrop, managing editor, Spudman