Here we go again.

We are once again beginning a race all too familiar, with persistent hope that this time we will cross the finish line: A bill signing ceremony in the White House.

We have a pretty good start this time around.

At the end of June, I was pleased to join industry colleagues from around the country for a press conference in Washington where House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-PA) introduced HR 9535, the “Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act (SAWA).” The legislation’s genesis is an interesting part of this story.

In 2023, Thompson created a bipartisan House Agriculture Committee working group on ag labor. After months of hearings and research, it issued recommendations to address agriculture’s labor crisis. Thompson used those recommendations to develop the legislation with industry representatives and bipartisan House support, despite the Agriculture Committee having no jurisdiction over labor policy. That rests with the House Judiciary Committee.

SAWA builds on elements of the twice-passed Farm Workforce Modernization Act and updates it to reflect the realities we now confront. Specifically, SAWA codifies positive changes to the H-2A visa program recently made by the Trump Labor Department. Chief among them is a new Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) methodology that has lowered wage rates and helped many smaller farming operations remain viable. How critical has this been? Look to California, where the AEWR rose nearly 34 percent during the Biden administration, far outpacing abnormally high inflation.

In several other respects, SAWA streamlines the H-2A program and makes practical changes that give employers greater flexibility, ease of use and greater certainty that the bureaucracy will deliver.

A key question is how the legislation would affect experienced agricultural employees not legally present in the U.S. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA) allowed these valued employees to obtain renewable five-year agriculture work visas, with qualifying conditions (e.g., no felonies, payment of fines, etc.). SAWA instead proposes to allow these workers to convert to H-2A visa holders, if they pass a background check and meet other conditions.

This provision will draw attention from Thompson’s fellow Republicans, starting with those on the House Judiciary Committee, which will be the first stop for this bill. Hard-liners may insist that these workers be forced to “touch back” to their countries of origin before applying for a visa. This was demanded by many Republicans in a previous ag labor reform effort, compelling WG (hat tip to Tom Nassif) to work to defeat it. As every farmer knows, forcing these valued employees to leave the U.S. for a country that is not home will gut our workforce with no means of recovery.

Thompson and the nearly 50 members of the House (mostly fellow Republicans) who joined as original co-authors of SAWA appreciate this. But the Judiciary Committee’s Republican members include at least nine who are also members of, or aligned with, the House Freedom Caucus, including Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). It will take some work to persuade enough of them to advance this legislation, while likely also needing some of the committee’s Democrat members to join.

Assuming that needle can be threaded, Thompson and allies will need to push hard to get a House floor vote, and then, the Senate…which is where the FMWA languished twice without so much as a hearing.

In the last 20 years, our industry has had at least four legislative reform efforts come close to the finish line. The now faded “AgJOBS” legislation of 2006-07 created elements for the next four attempts. Next was the “Gang of Eight” bill, passed by a two-thirds vote in the Senate in 2013, only to be ignored by the House. The two FWMA bills followed, as noted above, both ignored by the Senate.

Is the fifth time a charm? Maybe. Things have changed a lot since even the last FWMA bill passed. Farmers in more regions of the country have turned to H-2A out of necessity, creating a lot of new advocates for reform. Also of note, the dairy industry is fully engaged because SAWA would give them access to H-2A visas for the first time.

My predecessor, Tom Nassif, often appealed to those in the Congress who could step forward as statesmen, suppressing partisan inclinations and leading towards sound public policy solutions. G.T. Thompson has stepped forward. Our imperative—indeed, all of American agriculture’s—is to insist that Congress act to protect American farmers and food production, especially as the issue gets hot in social media and talk radio.

There is a wild card to all this: President Trump. Several times he has made comments that directionally align with what Thompson’s legislation would do. Having secured the border, he is in a uniquely powerful position to pull off a “Nixon Goes to China” moment. Were he to publicly and strongly support the Thompson effort, the likelihood of this Congress moving this bill to his desk increases substantially.

The President knows where we stand, and how critical this moment is. He often calls America’s farmers his strongest base of support and proudly proclaims his love of them. There is no greater opportunity for him to reciprocate the affection than in leading a durable resolution to our chronic labor crisis and securing American farming and food production.