The House of Representatives approved the Farm Workforce Modernization Act by a vote of  247 to 174. This marks the second time in the last two years the House has taken action on this important legislation.

"The legislation will stabilize our current workforce and make improvements to ensure that a future workforce is available to meet the growing needs of the fresh produce industry," said Tom Stenzel, president and CEO of the United Fresh Produce Association. "The strong support for this measure would not have been possible without the leadership of Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA). Their efforts, aided by colleagues on both sides of the aisle, made today’s passage of the bill possible. Now our efforts turn to the Senate where we will work to further improve the bill and garner similar bipartisan support for this legislation.”

“Today’s vote reconfirms the reality that well-crafted and durable legislation requires the input of thoughtful and pragmatic lawmakers from both parties," said Dave Puglia, president and CEO of Western Growers. "We thank the House members who led this effort and all who voted in favor of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act. Next, we urge Senators of both parties to begin their consideration of this legislation in a similar construct, guided by a desire to produce legislation negotiated with both agriculture and labor advocates and supported by Senators of both parties.

“The need for a solution to agriculture’s labor crisis has been widely accepted across party lines," continued Puglia. "Furthermore, the remedy, which addresses both the existing workforce and the future flow of workers, has been negotiated in painstaking detail and agreed to by advocates representing farmers and farmworkers alike. The Senate never took up this legislation after it passed the House in 2019 and the problem has predictably worsened. Americans want to see Congress work on real problems and real solutions and spend less time in ideological conflict. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act affords the Senate a powerful opportunity to meet that expectation.”

“We commend Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Dan Newhouse for their commitment to this meaningful ag labor reform,” said USApple President and CEO Jim Bair. “The legislation will stabilize the current agricultural workforce by creating a process for them to gain work authorization to continue working in agriculture. It also brings needed modernization and cost containment to the H-2A agricultural guestworker program.”  

Each year growers across the country face uncertainty as to whether there will be sufficient labor to harvest the crop. The current system causes an unstable situation for all farmers who depend on immigrant labor.

United Fresh urged the industry to turn its attention to the Senate, where it said passage of this or something similar is paramount for our industry to finally realize structural changes to our nation’s immigration laws.