Farm Labor Legislation in DC and Community Wildfire Defense Grants
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**A nationwide farm labor shortage is contributing to a flurry of legislative action in Congress this year.
The House Committee on Agriculture has formed a bipartisan
Ag Labor Working Group to study and propose changes to the H-2A temporary work visa program.
Last year, Congress failed to pass the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, including immigration law reforms. It has been reintroduced this year.
**The USDA announced the application period for the Community Wildfire Defense Grant program.
Now in its second year, the competitive program is designed to assist at-risk communities with planning for and mitigating wildfire risks.
Applications will be accepted for 90 days.
The announcement comes after $197 million was awarded to 99 project proposals across 22 states and seven Tribes during the first year of funding.
**The nation’s average gas price soared 16.5 cents in the last week to $3.72 per gallon, according to GasBuddy.
The national average DIESEL price jumped 15.5 cents, to $3.99 per gallon.
GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan says, “Prices suddenly soared over the last week due to heat-related refinery outages that impacted some of the largest refineries in the country.”
The outages come at a time when summer gas demand peaks and gas inventories slid to their lowest July level since 2015.
