The legislation would give growers, laborers what they most need and want, union leader says.
The United Farm Workers and West Coast agricultural groups agree on something.
Leaders of the nation s largest ag workers union are backing a revived bill in Congress that would reform the H-2A farm guestworker program, providing a path to legal status for undocumented workers and their immediate families.
United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero and UFW Foundation Executive Director Diana Tellefson Torres heralded the reintroduction of the bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act coauthored by U.S. Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Dan Newhouse, R-Wash.
Washington Apple Commission, Western Growers, others support the bill.
West Coast farm groups are cheering the March 3 reintroduction of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which passed the House of Representatives with a wide bipartisan majority in late 2019 but was bottled up by the pandemic and election-year politics in the Senate.
The bill s sponsors, Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., say H.R. 1537 would provide stability, predictability and fairness to one of the nation s most critical sectors.
“As one of only a few farmers in Congress, I understand the invaluable contributions our producers and farmworkers make to our nation’s unparalleled agriculture industry, Newhouse said. Bringing our agriculture labor program into the 21st century is absolutely critical as we work to recover from the impacts of the pandemic and ensure a stable food supply chain in the United States. We must act now to provide certainty to farmers, ranchers, and farmw