United Fresh Weighs In On Legislative Priorities For Farm Bill And Labor
October 22, 2013 Following the reopening of the federal government, United Fresh Produce Association is working with industry allies on key communications to policymakers ensuring a continued focus on the immigration system and Farm Bill. First, the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance, of which United Fresh is a member, recently reported to Congress on the specialty crop sector’s priorities for the upcoming Farm Bill conference. Recently, leaders of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees, including Senate Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and House Chairman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, announced that conferees appointed to work out differences between the two bodies’ versions of the Farm Bill will be meeting the week of Oct. 28 to formally begin the conference process.
“There are things that we know will help strengthen our economy that we could get done before this year is out,” said President Obama in a recent statement just after Congress reached an agreement on reopening the federal government and addressing the debt ceiling. “We still need to pass a law to fix our broken immigration system. We still need to pass a farm bill.”
The Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance, with nearly 120 members representing close to 300 different commodities, sent a letter detailing the Alliance’s position on the House and Senate’s Farm Bill language on key priority issues, including Specialty Crop Block Grants, the Specialty Crop Research Initiative, pest and plant disease mitigation, nutrition, and trade.
“After our industry has waited so long for a farm bill reauthorization, it is very encouraging to see the conference begin. Now that we’ve reached the critical point in the legislative process, it is crucial that the members of Congress who will be developing the final legislation know exactly where the produce industry stands on these programs that have a tremendous impact on the industry,” said Robert Guenther, United Fresh senior vice president for public policy. “We worked closely with our allies in Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance to clearly lay out what our sector needs to see in a finished farm bill reauthorization and will continue to work closely to ensure those policy needs are met.”
The other issue that the President referenced, immigration reform, will have an impact on the produce industry’s ability to attract an skilled, committed workforce to get commodities from the field to the marketplace. The current federal system used by many produce operations, known as H-2A, presents many challenges to users to get workers in a timely fashion. The recent federal government shutdown has resulted in a backlog of processing H-2A applications. United Fresh strongly supports efforts this week by Congressmen Sam Farr and Tom Rooney, to spearhead joint congressional letters (letter 1, letter 2) to key government agencies responsible for managing the H-2A federal agriculture guest worker program. The letters were signed by more than 20 members of Congress and encourage the Department of Labor and other agencies to find a streamlined and efficient way to process the applications as soon as possible. United Fresh is also coordinating a letter from industry to the same federal agencies to express support for the recommendations in the congressional letters. Clearing the H-2A backlog is especially critical since the winter fruit and vegetable season is about to come into full harvest, and growers in states such as Florida and Arizona will be severely impacted if they do not have the harvest workers ready to go in the next several weeks.
“Getting H-2A applications processed in a timely manner, even without a government shutdown, is always a challenge for produce providers,” said Guenther. “Paperwork being backed up for over two weeks really puts growers, who desperately need workers, in a tighter bind. The strong bipartisan group of members of Congress is sending a critical message urging relevant agencies to move resources as needed to address this issue, and offering specific recommendations for speeding up the approval process. Congressman Farr and Congressman Rooney have been champions of the produce industry and this letter demonstrates their commitment. United Fresh supports and will complement their work. United Fresh will do everything we can to monitor agency efforts to clear up the backlog, and ensure it’s done as fast and efficiently.”
The produce industry will continue to work mutually to encourage the impacted federal agencies to expedite these applications.
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