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By Don Jenkins, Capital Press      

Farm groups likely will soon see legislation to increase the labor supply by reforming the H-2A guest worker program, National Council of Agricultural Employers President and CEO John Hollay said.  

A key issue will be whether undocumented domestic farmworkers will be eligible to participate in the program, he said in an interview Feb. 4. “I think that is going to absolutely be part of the conversations,” he said.  

House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson, R-Penn., said at the American Farm Bureau national convention last month that he hoped to introduce a bill before the end of March.

A bipartisan congressional task force laid the foundation with recommendations for reforming the H-2A program. But Thompson said he wants legislation to also cover farmworkers in the country illegally.  

“It is time to break that gridlock that we’ve had since the 1980s,” he said. “In the past, people always told us we couldn’t do something because the border wasn’t under control. … That excuse is gone.”  

The House Judiciary Committee has jurisdiction over immigration bills, making it the first stop for legislation to expand the agricultural workforce. The committee is presumably less attuned to agriculture’s need for workers than is Thompson’s committee.  

While U.S. farms filled 398,258 jobs last year with H-2A workers, some 680,000 farmworkers were in the country illegally, the Congressional Research Service estimated. Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall said last month Congress needs to do something for those workers — and “fast.”  

It’s been five years, however, since the House last passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. The bill, which never passed the Senate, would allow undocumented farmworkers to register as “certified agricultural workers.”  

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., reintroduced the bill last year, but it hasn’t moved. Hollay said he doubts it has enough political support to be the vehicle for reform.

Prospects are better for Congress to expand who can be a guest farmworker, he said. “I think concerns about economic security and food security are what is popping through,” he said.  

Worker and Farmer Labor Association CEO Enrique Gastelum said he thinks Congress may look at H-2 reforms, but immigration reform is a step too far.  

“It’s too polarizing an issue, unfortunately, for our elected officials to get their heads wrapped around,” he said.  The conflicts in Minnesota have emboldened extremists on both sides, he said. “I think it’s really destroying the chances for something rational, which I think our country has needed for some time.”  

The congressional task force unanimously agreed to 15 recommendations, including allowing H-2A workers to do year-round jobs. That would allow dairies and ranches to hire H-2 workers. Currently, H-2 workers are limited to seasonal jobs.  

The task force also unanimously agreed to limiting increases to H-2A minimum wages to 3.25% a year.  

Six other recommendations received support from a majority of the task force. 

The recommendations included giving H-2A workers three-year visas.  

The Biden administration issued thousands of pages of H-2A regulations. Courts rejected some of the rules, and the Trump administration reversed others. Federal lawmakers could bring stability by reforming the program, Hollay said. “It’s critical to get something through Congress."