Newhouse: Congress Must Pick up Where It Left Off On Ag Labor

Now that the threat of a government shutdown is behind lawmakers, Dan Newhouse says he plans to push Congress to address the Ag labor shortage.  Newhouse says he is working with Georgia’s Doug Collins, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, to pick up where the 115^th Congress left off.

The Central Washington Republican noted Ag labor is a bipartisan issue, and both parties have expressed an interest to address the problem.  Last week’s vote was, Newhouse hopes, the first step in larger changes in immigration reform.

“So I think that there will be opportunities in the future, to be able to couple other aspects of immigration reform, including Ag labor, and DACA, in packages in the future.”

Newhouse said while he and others have worked on temporary fix, Congress needs to come up with a permanent fix for agriculture and the American people.

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