Ag leaders have been pushing your lawmakers in Washington for Farm Labor reform for a long time. On Sunday, the top ag lawmakers in both the House and Senate told American Farm Bureau Federation members that Farm Labor reform can’t wait any longer.
“I just think the time has come to get this done,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the Ranking Member of the Senate Ag Committee.
In a rare joint appearance on Sunday, all four leaders of the congressional agriculture committees appeared together on stage during the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) Convention in Anaheim, California to discuss ag policy issues.
Zippy Duvall, AFBF President, moderated a panel discussion with those top Republican and Democrat ag lawmakers. One of the main topics that was addressed was farm labor reform.
“Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) has a bill that I’m a co-sponsor of that would fix the H-2A Visa program,” said Klobuchar. “It would make sure that we have year-round visas and that we are doing something on wage certainty to protect the existing workforce.”
Congressman Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-PA-15), Chair of House Agriculture Committee, told the crowd that previous excuses for passing Farm Labor reform no longer apply.
“People always told us in the past we couldn’t do something was because the border [with Mexico] wasn’t under control. Now, I would argue that the border has always been under control—it was just under control by the cartels previously. Today, it’s under control of the United States of America, and so that excuse is gone,” said Thompson.
Meanwhile, Congresswoman Angie Craig (R-MN-02), Ranking Member of the House Ag Committee, said the current challenge facing Farm Labor reform are the recent actions of the Trump administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
“Being from Minnesota—right now, we have a number of Homeland Security actions underway in the state of Minnesota. I got a text a couple of days ago, and one of my dairy farmers said that ICE agents were sitting at a gas station near the dairy farm and people didn’t want to come to work. Whether they were legal immigrants or not, they don’t want to come to work because they fear this environment right now,” according to Craig.
“This administration, at times, does not act like they actually want immigrant labor here in the United States of America, and we all know that we need them in this sector of the economy and many, many others,” said Craig.
Senator John Boozman (R-AR), Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, agreed with his three fellow lawmakers that the ag community has made it clear how desperate the need is for farm labor reform.
“H-2A is not working. We need massive reform, and the good news is on both sides of the aisle, I think that we are getting that message because of your hard work. I don’t think I’ve visited with a farm group that didn’t bring this up and explain why it was hurting their particular role in agriculture,” said Boozman.
CLICK BELOW for Michigan Ag Today’s radio news report.
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CLICK BELOW to watch the full video of that panel discussion from the AFBF Convention (Panel discussion begins at 56:42).
