WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Pork Producers Council, which represents more than 60,000 pork producers across the country, is expressing strong support for new legislation introduced by House Agriculture Committee Chairman GT Thompson (R-PA). The bill, called the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act, incorporates recommendations from the council that would allow pork producers to take advantage of the H-2A visa program.
NPPC President Rob Brenneman, a pork producer from Washington County, Iowa, offered his praise for the measure. “Agriculture needs a strong — and reliable — workforce. For pork producers, one giant step in the right direction means expanding the H-2A visa program to include year-round agricultural industries like ours,” Brenneman said. “Thank you, Chairman Thompson, for listening to our ideas and solutions for rectifying our severe workforce shortage.”
Under current federal law, the H-2A program is limited to temporary and seasonal agricultural work. That restriction has effectively shut out pork producers and other year-round farming industries from using the program to bring in immigrant farm workers.
Beyond expanding access to the H-2A program, the legislation would also make several other changes. It would broaden the definition of “agriculture labor or services” to better reflect the needs of the industry, including certain meat processing activities, and would transfer authority to further define that term to the Secretary of Agriculture. The bill would also lock in standards for calculating Adverse Effect Wage Rates, which are designed to keep costs manageable and bring more predictability to farmworker pay. Additionally, the legislation would allow multi-year housing certifications and set maximum daily housing charges that employers can deduct from worker wages — both measures aimed at cutting costs. It would also create a single, internet-based electronic portal to streamline the H-2A application process.
The council notes that despite offering higher wages and competitive benefits, employment in pork production has dropped over the past five years — a challenge that adds to the difficulties producers already face in supplying food domestically and internationally.
Chairman Thompson’s bill drew from recommendations made by the bipartisan Agricultural Labor Working Group, an effort in which the National Pork Producers Council has been actively involved. The council says it will continue pushing for solutions to the workforce challenges confronting pork producers.
