U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania, chair of the House Agriculture Committee, introduced the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act of 2026. The act is meant to improve the accessibility and cost of agricultural labor through the H-2A visa program. The legislation is supported by more than 400 agricultural groups.
The H-2A program allows foreign workers to perform temporary agricultural jobs in the United States.
“It’s time to bring the H-2A program into the 21st century,” Thompson said. “The H-2A visa program is woefully outdated, and it no longer meets the needs of American agricultural production.”
The act would expand access to the program for year-round operations, control costs to restore certainty to balance sheets, and streamline the interactions of the government agencies administering the program.
According to Thompson’s office, more than 300,000 H-2A visas were issued in 2024, a 2,766% growth rate over the number issued in 1996.
The Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association (FFVA), which supports the act, said key improvements it provides include:
- Expanding access for producers currently excluded from the program
- Ensuring access to legal guestworkers to pack and haul harvested produce when U.S. workers are not available
- Stabilizing wages while remaining protective of U.S. workers by codifying the adverse effect wage rate
“Florida is the nation’s largest user of the H-2A program — not because the program works well, but because growers have no other choice,” FFVA President Mike Joyner said. He added that the act “would improve access to a legal workforce, bring more stability and predictability to costs, and reduce administrative burdens that make it harder for growers to stay competitive.”
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), which also supports the act, stated that it modernizes the H-2A program by expanding access to a year-round workforce and eliminating unpredictable swings in wage rates, among other changes.
“The lack of available labor is among the largest limiting factors of American agriculture,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. “Most Americans don’t want to work on farms. In fact, only 182 domestic applications were submitted for nearly 415,000 advertised positions in 2025. If Americans won’t apply for these jobs, we have no other choice but to depend on the H-2A program. Unfortunately, the current guest worker program is inadequate to meet the demands on farms across the country.”
Duvall said Thompson’s act “delivers meaningful farm labor reform and will provide certainty and fairness to both farmers and their employees.”
According to AFBF, the act would:
- Allow temporary workers to remain on the job for up to 350 days
- Limit excessive or irrelevant federal fees to participate in the H-2A program
- Codify an improved wage methodology and establish safeguards to prevent unpredictable adverse effect wage rate fluctuations
- Affirm H-2A workers as essential
Read a summary of the bill here.
Sources: U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, FFVA and AFBF
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