Ag Priorities with a New Administration Pt 3

Ag Priorities with a New Administration Pt 3

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Members of Congress are, among other things, working on their list of priorities heading into the new year. And, Representative Dan Newhouse says many of his involve agriculture and the challenges on that industry.

The Sunnyside Republican says 2020 brought us some successes, like his Farm Workforce Modernization Act, but that even those could be better …

NEWHOUSE … “Yeah, we would like to see some improvements in some of the wage calculations, some of the House H-2A program can be made more affordable for farmers and more available to smaller growers.”

Newhouse says it was a good effort, but not perfect …

NEWHOUSE … “There were a few things I think that we can look at it from last year’s effort and work on improving to get a better law in place, but also, as you remember, even though we had over 300 ag organizations from around the country supporting the bill that was moving forward there were still some ag groups that were withholding full-throated support.”

So, Newhouse says there’s more work to be done …

NEWHOUSE … “We want to work with them so that we can do all we can to make improvements to improve the bill to the point where this will be a slam dunk and we can get it through with great support from the entire ag industry.”

Newhouse hopes recent differences can be set aside and a bipartisan approach will allow better results.

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