Lawmakers call for bipartisan solutions to farm labor shortage

National and state agricultural leaders joined Republican members of Congress on July 11 to call on Congress to pass bipartisan workforce solutions to address the farm labor shortage.

Republican lawmakers present included Reps. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., Jim Baird, R-Ind., Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., and Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, according to a news release. A video recording of the press conference is available at this link.

Speakers rallied support for Sens. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., as they continue their bipartisan efforts to introduce Senate legislation that builds on the House-passed Farm Workforce Modernization Act which passed both in 2019 and 2021, with strong bipartisan support, the release said.

“Consumers are seeing high costs of milk, produce, fruits, meat, and eggs in the supermarket because the Senate has not acted,” American Business Immigration Coalition Action Executive Director and event emcee Rebecca Shi, said in the release. “We need the Senate to act now to provide food security and lower costs for the American people.”

International Fresh Produce Association CEO Cathy Burns added her voice to push for farm labor reform.

“Without immigration reform, we know that American consumers will continue to experience higher prices and fewer options at the grocery store, threatening food security and availability,” Burns said in a statement. “Any threat to the availability of fresh produce undermines the health benefits of fruits and vegetables in combating the chronic diseases that cost our economy billions.”

National Council of Agricultural Employers President and CEO Michael Marsh said in a statement that farm labor reform is a national security issue. “A bipartisan coalition of leaders in the House of Representatives successfully negotiated and passed ag labor reform,” Marsh said. “We now need the Senate to act. We applaud U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Mike Crapo of Idaho for their bipartisan leadership in that Chamber and look forward to helping them advance their version of this critical legislation in the U.S. Senate.”

Republican members of the House of Representatives also called on the Senate to pass a bill this session. “This is a vitally important issue for America,” Simpson said in the release. “We passed it twice in the house. We want the senate to act on it and we want them to do it this year… I am living proof that you can actually talk about immigration and go out and win an election.”

National Council of Farmer Cooperatives Chuck Connor highlighted the importance of farm labor reform in remarks at the press conference. “For more than a decade, a wide range of agriculture groups have come together to push for a solution to the agriculture labor crisis in a united effort,” Connor said.

“Yet, it’s the events of the past few years – from the COVID to the war in Ukraine – that have highlighted, for me, a fact that often gets overlooked in this debate—our national security is tied to our ability to feed ourselves, and that ability is currently under extreme threat because of the agriculture labor crisis.”

At the press conference, Texas A&M University Associate Professor Sean Maddan released data from a new economic study on the link between stabilizing the agricultural workforce and decreasing inflation and consumer prices.

“Overall, the findings in this study tended to support the conclusion that policies on non-citizen admissions and immigration have a profound association with the economy,” Maddan said in the release. “The relationships denoted above are strong, statistically significant relationships, and definitely warrant further research and consideration.”

The release said the Texas A&M study’s topline findings include:

• More migrant and more H-2A workers are related with lower inflation;
• More migrant and more H-2A workers are associated with higher average wages and minimum wages;
• More migrant and more H-2A workers are associated with lower unemployment;
• More denied petitions for naturalization are associated with larger consumer prices and higher inflation; and
• More petitions for naturalization are associated with lower inflation.