Posts By: Ken Barbic

House Holds Hearing on Mandatory E-Verify

On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee continued its focus on increasing immigration enforcement and held a hearing on legislation that would make the E-Verify program mandatory throughout the country. The Ag Workforce Coalition, of which Western Growers is a founding member, provided testimony at Wednesday’s hearing  re-emphasizing that interior enforcement measures such as…

WG Opposes Mandatory E-Verify Passed Today by Judiciary Committee

Today, the House Judiciary Committee held a mark-up on the Legal Workforce Act, H.R. 1147, and passed the legislation out of committee on a party-line vote. The concerns of agriculture featured prominently in today’s mark-up. The devastation agriculture would face and the need to pass a solution for agriculture was mentioned by several committee members ...

AWC Members Register E-Verify Concerns with House Leadership

Western Growers along with over one hundred and forty members of Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC) sent a letter to House leadership today registering strong opposition to H.R. 1147, the Legal Workforce Act, which was reported out of the Judiciary Committee two weeks ago. The letter lays out agriculture’s opposition to any E-verify legislation that does not include…

Congress Gets Closer to Renewing TPA

Today, at presstime, the House Ways and Means Committee was still considering the Trade Priorities and Accountability (TPA) Act of 2015. Today’s action by Ways and Means comes on the heels of the Senate Finance Committee, which moved the TPA legislation out of that committee yesterday. Both committees had extensive debate on the TPA provisions. ...

Trade Issues on the Front Burner in DC

International trade issues were a focus during the Western Growers board fly-in last week, and activity in DC this week sees trade as a significant issue on several fronts. Trade Promotion Authority This week the Senate continues consideration of legislation to renew the president’s Trade Promotion Authority. After completing consideration of several amendments, the Senate ...

Trade Promotion Authority Another Step Closer to Completion

Today, the Senate moved another step closer to passing Trade Promotion Authority Legislation as Senators voted 62-38 this morning to invoke cloture. This vote limits remaining debate on the legislation and is an important hurdle cleared in leading to a vote on final passage by Friday evening. In today’s vote, Western Growers home state Senators ...

Bill Minimizing Economic Harm during Port Labor Disputes Lauded by WG & CFVGA

Western Growers and the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (CFVGA) issued a joint statement last week applauding the introduction of legislation aimed at minimizing economic harm at ports due to labor disputes. Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), introduced the Protecting Orderly and Responsible Transit of Shipments (PORTS) Act on June ...

Key Trade Votes Scheduled in Congress for Tomorrow

Today, the House approved a procedural motion that paves the way for consideration tomorrow of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation, along with several other trade related measures.  Earlier in the day, Congressman Sam Farr (D-CA) publicly announced his support for TPA, Western Growers thanks him for stepping out in support of this critical vote.  The ...

Failed Trade Assistance Bill Leaves Murky Path Forward for TPA

On Friday, June 12th, the House held a series of trade related votes, including a measure to advance Trade Promotion Authority (TPA). While the Senate had passed TPA along with Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) in a single bill, the political dynamics in the House would not have allowed for that combined package to garner 218 ...

House Advances Stand-Alone TPA Bill

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives was able to advance Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) by a vote of 218-208. The Senate will likely consider the stand alone TPA measure next week and will also take up Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) legislation separately from TPA. This new strategy to split the two issues will require maintaining ...

Trade Bill Advances; Awaits Presidential Signature

Yesterday, by a vote of 60 to 38, the Senate passed legislation renewing Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for the Obama administration. With the Senate’s action, the legislation will now go to the president, who is expected to sign the bill in the days ahead. The vote follows the strong bi-partisan support this legislation garnered in ...

House Judiciary Holds Ag Labor Mark-up with E-Verify Consideration Coming Tomorrow

Today, the House Judiciary Committee began a mark-up of H.R. 4092 “The AG Act” (Rep. Bob Goodlatte). This is the first step in the legislative process as the House begins consideration of immigration legislation. The mark-up of the AG Act has recessed for today and will continue tomorrow with consideration of the Legal Workforce Act ...

Why does Trade Promotion Authority Matter?

Over the past month, there has been a very public and heated debate over the future of trade policy in the United States. On the one hand, you have those who see an increasingly globalized economy and want to see the United States engaged in negotiating the future of international trade rules and the elimination ...

Laying the Foundations for Immigration Reform

While much of the recent public attention on immigration reform has been negative, Western Growers and many others continue efforts to educate members and quietly encourage the need for rationale rhetoric and positions from conservative-oriented officials. It is no secret that Western Growers has been engaged in shaping the agricultural provisions of immigration reform over ...

Immigration 2017—Opportunities and Challenges

(Editor’s Note: This story was written in late October, prior to the November election.)   We are about to conclude one of the strangest campaign seasons in American politics in any of our lifetimes.  We had two of the most unpopular major party nominees either party has ever put forward.  We saw a campaign that ...

What’s Next for NAFTA?

In place for 23 years now, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is widely considered to be the most significant trade pact ever entered into by the United States. A source of both derision and applause, the agreement’s positive impacts have been felt unevenly depending on the region of the country or sector of ...

Tax Reform Is About to Get Serious

Washington is abuzz with the prospect of passing comprehensive tax reform legislation later this year. The last time Congress passed a major overhaul of the tax code was in 1986, and while the political climate in D.C. will make enacting tax reform a difficult task, Republican leaders in the House and Senate, along with President ...