Securing Agriculture's Workforce Act of 2026

Overhauls the H-2A farm worker visa — 3-year certifications, a new wage-deducted housing charge, and a required heat-illness plan.

The details

The H-2A visa program that brings foreign workers onto American farms would be rebuilt. Labor certifications would last up to three years instead of a single season. The meaning of "temporary" work would change to any contract shorter than 350 days. That applies no matter whether the employer's need is actually seasonal. The list of covered work would widen considerably. It would take in meat and poultry slaughter, seafood processing, logging, pine straw gathering, and equine training. Homeland Security would run the program instead of the Attorney General. One online platform would handle applications across four agencies within a year. Pay rules would move in several directions at once. Employers would still owe the highest of a union wage, the applicable minimum wage, or the adverse effect wage rate. That last rate is the floor meant to keep guest workers from pulling down local pay. It would apply only in years when the Labor Department finds an adverse effect. Entry-level jobs would be priced at the 17th percentile of the state wage distribution. Jobs needing experience would be priced at the median. Bonuses, overtime, piece rates, and shift pay would be left out of the survey behind the rate. The rate could not fall more than 1.5 percent or rise more than 3.25 percent year to year. Once a job is posted, its wage would be locked for the whole contract. Housing changes are the other half of the money story. Employers would still have to provide housing. For the first time, they could deduct a daily charge for it from a worker's wages. The cap is the state's average four-bedroom fair market rent divided by 240. The charge has to be stated in the job offer. Housing would be judged against local rental and lodging codes rather than farmworker-specific federal standards. Where no local code exists, state and then federal standards apply. Inspections could be certified for three years and handed off to state agencies. Some new worker protections come with the package. Every employer would have to keep a heat illness prevention plan. It must cover water, shade, breaks, training, and emergency response. It must be posted on site and provided in a language the workers understand. A worker could move to a new H-2A employer the day that employer files. The bill also opens a path for people already doing farm work without legal status. Someone unlawfully present on May 31, 2026 could qualify. They would have to show at least 5.75 hours of farm work on 180 days over the prior two years. Certain grounds of inadmissibility and deportability would be waived for them. Employers who hand over the work records could not be prosecuted for having hired them.