House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson has introduced the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act (SAWA). This bill calls for significant updates to the H-2A guestworker visa program. These include three specific areas: expanding access, controlling costs and streamlining the process.
“The highest cost, the highest variable when it comes to ability of a farmer to continue farming is the cost of labor,” Thompson said in a press conference. “The cost of labor has … surpassed the impact of inflation by 70%.”
Key Provisions of SAWA
SAWA will remove the seasonal requirement of the H-2A guestworker program and will stipulate that visas for the program are for work of a temporary nature only. SAWA also clarifies the maximum contract length is 350 days. This bill explicitly expands the program for use in controlled environment agriculture and more. SAWA also moves the authority to define “agriculture labor and services” from the Secretary of Labor to the Secretary of Agriculture. The bill also calls for an opportunity for existing unauthorized agricultural workers to gain access to the H-2A program if they meet program requirements. This does not include a pathway to citizenship.
The bill limits year-over-year wage rate fluctuations to no more than a 3.5% increase or a 1.5% decrease. SAWA also codifies the general wage rate methodology of the Interim Final Rule, which calls for market-accurate, skill-based compensation using BLS data. The bill establishes the IFR housing adjustment as a daily charge and calls for multi-year labor certifications and housing inspections to reduce compliance costs.
The bill calls for the creation of an online platform for all correspondence between employers, workers and relevant agencies to occur in a timely manner and clarifies the roles of federal agencies to prevent duplication of work and to promote consistency in interpretation and implementation of policies and procedures. The regulation also aims to give growers more operational flexibility to handle unpredictable agricultural conditions while maintaining rule-based standards.
Broad Bipartisan Support for Ag Labor Reform
Thompson says he has worked with House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan for several months to bring this bipartisan bill forward.
“I think over 400 agriculture organizations have come together and endorsed the SAWA bill, and that’s something we haven’t necessarily had in the past,” he says.
Marty Durban, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, says that as the administration has secured the border, it has allowed a pathway forward for real ag labor reform.
“This bill just matters so much because it shows we can pair strong border security with a modern visa system that meets our economic needs,” he says. “We’re starting to see bipartisan recognition that targeted reforms can help address workforce shortages.”
Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council, who was in attendance, told The Packer the room was filled with staff, sponsors, co-sponsors and association members. Quarles says that’s not only a nod to how respected Chairman Thompson is but also the work he has put into the bill to garner bipartisan support, with 50 co-sponsors of the bill before being introduced.
“That’s a big deal,” Quarles says. “It’s Republicans and Democrats both who want to move the ball on this issue.”
Addressing the Rising Cost of Agricultural Labor
Joining Thompson was Rep. Dan Newhouse, a third-generation hops and tree fruit grower from Washington, who is one of only a dozen farmers in Congress. Newhouse says the effects of the labor shortage have hit his family’s farm hard, as his son, the fourth generation, navigates these challenges.
Over the past few years, he says: “There’s not a single grower of Washington apples that has made a profit.”
“Farmers need a reliable workforce to make that kind of farm work,” he says. “But many growers struggle to find the workers that they need in their communities, forcing them to go outside and utilize the H-2A program. But the cost of that program truly is putting very big hardship on our farmers on their bottom lines. And when you couple that with inflation and the high costs of inputs that people are facing … very few producers are actually making money.”
Newhouse says SAWA not only reforms the H-2A program but expands access and helps growers control costs and also streamlines the H-2A process to ensure growers have access to the workforce needed.
“This is not going to benefit just specialty crop growers, although it will, but this truly will benefit farmers across the nation,” Newhouse says.
Western Growers’ resident and CEO Dave Puglia spoke about how growers have relied on the H-2A program “not by choice, but of necessity” because the domestic workforce is not available in the numbers H-2A has needed.
“While H-2A has become essential, it remains too difficult, expensive and unpredictable for many farmers to use,” Puglia says, noting the legislation addresses many challenges growers have voiced for years.
Puglia says wage rules are a significant cost pressure facing farm employers. And he says the current challenges facing growers are why it’s important SAWA codifies the Interim Final Rule’s provisions on AEWR.
“Between 2018 and 2025, the national Adverse Effect Wage Rate, which is mandated for H-2A employers, increased by more than $5.50 per hour from $12.20 to $17.74,” he says. “That 45% surge far outpaced a historically high inflation rate during the same time period of 28%.”
Mike Joyner, president of Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, called the labor crisis “one of the greatest threats to the future of American agriculture,” noting that while growers face challenges from weather, markets, inflation and supply disruption, most of those challenges are out of growers’ control.
“Access to a legal, reliable workforce is one challenge that Congress can fix,” he says.
Joyner estimates Florida growers used about 55,000 guestworkers this past year and the program is too complex and restrictive for modern fresh produce operations.
“I recall speaking to one of our growers about three years ago right after the adverse effect wage rate increased by 15% in the middle of their season and after this grower had already invested everything into the crop and the workforce,” he says. “That spike translated into hundreds of thousands of dollars in unexpected labor protocols that this family could not just simply pass along and certainly hadn’t planned on it. Instead of focusing on improving their operations or expanding for their future, they were left to ask a much simpler question: ‘How do we get through this season?’”
Quarles says the U.S. has been blessed with an abundant food supply and consumers have not faced significant food insecurity.
“We’re blessed that we walk into every grocery store and the shelves are full and you’ve got a tremendous variety of choice and it’s a great thing,” he says. “That is our current situation, but we are not entitled to that. If we don’t think about really fundamental things like who’s going to harvest these commodities, it’s possible that we walk into those grocery stores in the future and certain things we felt were just always going to be there or gone.”
For potato growers, Quarles says, SAWA is a strong step in the right direction.
“You’ve got folks who have utilized the H-2A program for many, many years and it’s getting increasingly challenging for them to use it in a competitive way. It’s stressing to a breaking point,” he says. “Given all of the other challenges that are out there right now … having a constrained labor force is not helping the economics for family farms. …The impacts will trickle down to the consumer; it just won’t be in a positive way.”
