Securing Agriculture's Workforce Act of 2026

Key Points

• The bill lets employers keep H-2A labor certifications valid for up to three years instead of reapplying every season, cutting down on repeated paperwork for farms.
• It creates a single online platform where employers handle all paperwork, fees, and communication with agencies needed to bring in H-2A workers.
• Undocumented immigrants who worked steadily in U.S. agriculture before a set cutoff date can get a waiver for certain past immigration violations so they can join the H-2A program legally.
• New wage rules cap how much the required farmworker wage can rise or fall each year, limiting increases to 3.25% and decreases to 1.5%, and exclude overtime and bonuses from the calculation.
• Employers must adopt heat illness prevention plans for H-2A workers, covering access to water and shade, rest breaks, and emergency response training.
• Processing H-2A applications is declared an essential government function, so it would continue uninterrupted even during a government shutdown.