Newhouse: DC Can Do A Lot To Help NW Farmers

Central Washington’s Dan Newhouse says now is a challenging time in farm country.  He said there are many things Washington D.C. can do to help growers and producers in this corner of the country.  Newhouse, a member of the House Ag Committee, said the farming industry is in desperate need of ag labor reform.

“And though the Ag Committee is not the primary committee that has jurisdiction, it certainly has a lot of influence over that issue. So that's going to be one of the things that I'm hoping that the Ag committee can take and help the Judiciary Committee get that over the finish line.”

Multiple times over recent years, Newhouse has introduced the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which he says would make meaningful improvements to the H-2A program.

In addition to labor, Newhouse said to foster a strong and healthy farm economy, inflation needs to be addressed in a meaningful way, so input costs don’t eat away at the profits of farmers so dramatically.

“We need to make sure that we have the research capabilities to keep us on the cutting edge, and as I spoke to at length, we also need to make sure that the playing field is as level as possible when it comes to the competition that we face in the world markets. And so having those promotion programs having an active trade office to make sure that the those situations are in place," Newhouse stressed.

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