NCC Applauds Introduction of House Ag Labor Reform Bill

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn "GT" Thompson, R-Pa., today unveiled a bill to expand and modernize the H-2A agricultural guest worker program.

The Securing Agriculture's Workforce Act (SAWA) would broaden access to H-2A workers for year-round agricultural employers, remove the requirement that agricultural work must be seasonal, revise the wage calculation methodology and streamline the application process.

Most notably for the chicken industry, it expands eligible agricultural activities to include portions of meat harvesting and protein processing.

Current H-2A rules exclude processing/harvesting because they fall outside the "agricultural labor" definition tied to seasonal field work.

"Work is not seasonal in our processing plants - it is year-round, so access to a pool of stable legal workers through a viable visa program is critical to food manufacturers, like chicken processors," said National Chicken Council President Harrison Kircher. "We thank Chairman Thompson and look forward to working with him and Congress to pass this bill."