Farm Workforce Modernization Act to be Reintroduced in House

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) announced that it was her intention reintroduce and to bring the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA) directly to the House floor for a vote before April 1. The FWMA was passed last session by the U.S. House of Representatives with a bipartisan vote of 260-165, but stalled in the Senate.

The bill has three main sections or titles:

Title I - Earned Status for Certified Agricultural Workers

This title establishes a program for agricultural workers in the United States to get right with the law and earn legal status through continued agricultural employment and contribution to the U.S. agricultural economy.

Title II.  Improving the H-2A Program

This bill would improve the H-2A visa program to work for all of agriculture.

• It would reduce the time and cost for growers who utilize the program, so they have access to a legal source of labor when they need it.
• It modernizes and applies caps to out-of-control wage growth in the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR).
• It streamlines the processing of H-2A petitions so growers can get farmworkers when they need them.
• It pilots a portable H-2A visa program to allow employers and farmworkers to respond more dynamically to labor needs.

Title III.  Mandatory E-Verify for the Agricultural Sector

This title would establish a mandatory, nationwide E-Verify system for all agricultural employment. 

The bill would improve E-Verify for the whole country, but the system would be made mandatory only for the agricultural sector, with a structured phase-in and guaranteed due process for authorized workers who are incorrectly rejected by the system. This phase-in will ensure that agricultural employers are not inadvertently harmed while the new systems the bill puts into place are being developed.

A synopsis of the bill can be downloaded here. The full text of the bill can be downloaded here.

For Loftgren’s plan to work there could be no changes to the bill as it was passed by the House in 2019. Any attempt to change the bill could upset the delicate bipartisan agreement reached on the prior bill. The new bill has not yet been introduced.

What You Can Do

For this to succeed, advocates for the FWMA must take the following actions:

1. Touch base with House Republicans who supported the bill last Congress, to urge their support if the same bill is brought forward. Voting yes last time were Representatives Fitzpatrick, Smucker and Thompson.
2. Reach out to your Democratic representative to urge them to voice their support to House leadership for a FWMA vote on the bill that passed last time.