Ag and Legal Workforce Expected To Be Front And Center In D.C.

Now that the Labor Day holiday is behind us, lawmakers in D.C. can focus their efforts on agricultural labor.  The Ag and Legal Workforce Act of 2018, supported by Representative Dan Newhouse, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and others in the Ag community would replace the H-2A program with a new H-2C program.

“The advantages of the new program are, it’s open to all of agriculture, it’s less bureaucratic for farmers, it reduces unneeded recruitment information, it moves enforcement to USDA takes it out of Department of Labor," said Paul Schlegel is the AFBF’s public policy managing director.  "The other major aspect of the bill is it would mandate the E-verify system nationwide.”

Schlegel noted the bill provides much-needed relief for farmers and ranchers.

“You have a real crisis, or demand for labor within the agricultural sector, and this also gets us a program for which everyone is eligible and it relieves the anxiety farmers have to make sure their farmers are legal.”

Lawmakers have just 19 in-session days to consider the bill before another break ahead of the November elections.  The bill has not yet been scheduled for a floor vote but AFBF is hopeful for a vote later this month.

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