Grower groups applaud proposed changes to the H-2A visa program outlined in the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act of 2026.
Pennsylvania Rep. Glenn Thompson, former chair of the House Committee on Agriculture, introduced the bill, H.R. 9535, on June 30.
“It’s time to bring the H-2A program into the 21st century,” Thompson said when announcing the bill. “The H-2A visa program is woefully outdated, and it no longer meets the needs of American agricultural production.”
After hearing countless testimonials from producers across the country regarding the lack of an accessible and affordable workforce during his tenure as chairman of the agriculture committee, Thompson organized a bipartisan working group of committee members to analyze the problem and propose solutions. The group’s recommendations serve as the bill’s policy foundation, according to Thompson.
With a shrinking domestic agricultural workforce, American farmers have increasingly turned to H-2A guest workers over the past 20 years. In 2024, more than 300,000 H-2A visas were issued, a 2,766 percent increase over the number issued in 1996.
Wages for H-2A workers are calculated in each region of the country based on the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), a mechanism originally designed to ensure domestic worker wages were not undercut by foreign laborers. But from 2010 to 2025, AEWR outpaced inflation by 70 percent, according to Thompson.
In fall 2025, the federal government changed its AEWR calculations through rulemaking, creating two wage tiers and generally lowering H-2A wages. Thompson’s bill seeks to codify those changes into legislation. It also seeks to lengthen H-2A job contracts to a maximum of 350 days per year and expand the program into additional activities such as aquaculture and forestry. If they meet certain requirements, currently unauthorized agricultural workers living in the U.S. can gain temporary legal work status through H-2A, but the bill does not offer a pathway to citizenship.
Thompson’s bill is supported by more than 400 agricultural groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, Western Growers Association, National Council of Agricultural Employers, U.S. Apple Association and Northwest Horticultural Council.
“Chairman Thompson has consistently been willing to tackle one of agriculture’s toughest challenges: the labor crisis,” Jim Bair, president and CEO of the U.S. Apple Association, said in a statement. “We’re grateful for his leadership, along with the bipartisan support of this bill’s co-sponsors.”
By codifying the current wage methodology, streamlining administration and expanding H-2A eligibility to packing facilities, Thompson’s bill would deliver meaningful advances for labor-intensive specialty crops, USApple said in a statement.
“More predictable wages are essential to keeping American agriculture strong and fresh produce affordable for consumers,” Western Growers President and CEO Dave Puglia said in a statement. “(Thompson’s bill) would take important steps to streamline the program, reduce administrative burdens and provide greater certainty around wage rules.”
Northwest Horticultural Council President Mark Powers said the H-2A program is a lifeline for an increasing number of growers who cannot otherwise find the workers needed to harvest their crops. For the past two seasons, Washington apple growers have paid more for labor than they received for the sale of their fruit, before any other input costs were paid. Washington state lost 15 percent of its tree fruit farms between 2017 and 2022, while Oregon lost more than one in four. Without meaningful labor reform, the industry will continue to lose more farms, according to an NHC statement.
The United Farm Workers of America labor union opposes the bill, which “will undercut U.S. farmworkers, impoverish rural communities and expand the exploitative H-2A guest-worker program,” according to a UFW statement.
“This twisted piece of legislation would have long-term impacts on America’s rural communities, displacing longtime resident farmworkers who raise families and pay taxes with a huge underclass of foreign guest workers living on company property, unable to change jobs and permanently excluded from citizenship,” UFW President Teresa Romero said in a statement. •
