immigration reform

U.S. produce growers require a lot of labor, but they face a labor crisis in getting enough workers in the field and the packing houses.  Little Bear Produce, a grower-packer-shipper from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, grows various food crops.  Br...

As the lame duck session of Congress works through the final weeks of 2022, many farm and agriculture groups are pressing lawmakers to finish immigration reform through the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.  The legislation, spearheaded by Central Washington’s Dan Newhouse and others, has already cleared the House, but has not been voted on in the Senate.  Representativ...

Four of the five Republicans running for Oregon’s 5th Congressional District took to a virtual stage, last week. Those that participated agreed on a number of issues, including preserving gun rights and cutting off pandemic spending. Whe ...

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled against the Democrats’ plan to provide eight million green cards as a part of their $3.5 trillion spending bill. According to The Hill, that decision makes getting immigration reform to President Biden’s desk much harder. The Ameri ...

Last week, the National Milk Producers Federation expressed their pleasure with an amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations bill, proposed by representatives Dan Newhouse and Henry Cuellar that will allow the dairy industry to participate in the H-2A program ...

The American Farm Bureau Federation recently joined all 50 state Farm Bureaus and Puerto Rico Farm Bureau in sending a letter urging the Biden administration to address the surge of undocumented immigrants entering the United States. The letter went to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland as well as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ...

On Wednesday, Dan Newhouse, Chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, joined other lawmakers on the steps of the U.S. capital, calling for “real, commonsense immigration reform”. Newhouse threw his support behind Florida Representative María Elvira Salazar’s Dignity Proposal. Newhouse said the prop ...

The current Congress will address many big issues over the next two years that will have a direct impact on the farming community. From how the country rebounds from the COVID pandemic, to the best ways to expand trade opportunities, and how to improve a crumbling infrastructure nationwide ...

It’s been over three decades the last time Ag labor laws saw major changes in the U.S. Many had hoped that streak would come to an end after the Workforce Modernization Act Cleared the House to wrap up 2019. Central Washington’s Dan Newhouse said when the legislation was sent to the Senate for consideration supporters looked to keep up the momentum the proposal gained in the House. However, .

Representative Ted Yoho, a Florida Republican, is working on an agricultural guest worker reform bill, he calls the Agricultural Guest worker Proposal.  He said his legislation differs from the Farm Workforce Modernization Act recently introduced by Central Washington’s Dan Newhouse and California’s Zoe Lofgren.   Yoho sa...