AFBF Disappointed By Cumbersome H-2A Program

The American Farm Bureau Federation opposes changes to the H2A temporary worker program proposed by the Labor Department. We are disappointed that the department wants to suspend rules that allow U.S. agriculture to legally hire much-needed temporary workers.

About a third of the U.S. agriculture workforce is hired, and over the years growers have found it increasingly difficult to find U.S. workers to fill those jobs.  The H2A program was set up to help growers who cannot find workers here. Unfortunately, the program has never lived up to its potential – it is bureaucratic, cumbersome and expensive.  The Bush administration tried to make the program more functional but even those reforms don’t help large segments of American agriculture, like dairy farmers, who consistently experience a shortage of workers.

The Labor Department’s proposal to suspend the new regulation is a terrible step backwards.  Not only is it causing confusion for those who would like to use the program, it will reinstate bureaucratic headaches that don’t do any good for workers or growers, and it will even have the perverse effect of putting unauthorized workers in line for jobs at a time when U.S. workers are losing theirs.

By: AFBF Director of Public Policy Paul Schlegel