Western Growers, California Farm Bureau oppose ag workforce bill

Coalitions of farm groups are at odds over whether the House should vote this week on a bill introduced last week by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., to replace the H-2A visa program with an agricultural guestworker program, known as the H-2C program. A coalition of more than 200 agriculture groups including the American Farm Bureau Federation has endorsed the bill, but Western Growers, the largest representative of fruit and vegetable growers in the country, and the California Farm Bureau Federation have come out in strong opposition.The H-2C program would be available to both seasonal and year-round agricultural employers and provide a visa allocation, but would would also require employers use the E-Verify system to make sure workers are legally in the United States.