U.S. Farmworker Protection Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill responds to rapid H-2A program growth by adding an annual certification cap to section 218 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Secretary of Labor could not certify petitions covering more than 400,000 H-2A positions in a fiscal year. Positions specified by the petitioner as filled by workers represented by a bargaining representative would not count toward the cap. The bill defines bargaining representative as a labor organization representing agricultural employees, filing required LM forms with the Department of Labor, and having a collective bargaining agreement covering agricultural employees.
Who Benefits and How
United States farmworkers and agricultural labor organizations benefit from a cap meant to reduce displacement and wage pressure from unlimited H-2A growth, while union-represented agricultural jobs receive an exemption from the numeric limit.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Agricultural employers using H-2A labor must plan around a 400,000-position annual certification ceiling unless covered positions are represented by a qualifying bargaining representative. The Department of Labor must track certified positions, determine which union-represented positions are excluded, and administer the cap.
Key Provisions
- Limits Department of Labor H-2A certifications to 400,000 positions for a fiscal year.
- Protects union-represented agricultural positions by excluding them from the 400,000-position cap.
- Requires petition-level tracking of whether positions will be filled by workers represented by a qualifying bargaining representative.
- Establishes the bargaining-representative definition using NLRA labor-organization status, LM filings, and a collective bargaining agreement.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Caps H-2A certifications at 400,000 positions per fiscal year while exempting positions filled by workers represented by qualifying agricultural labor organizations.
Key Policy Areas
Immigration, Labor, Agriculture
Primary Purpose
Caps H-2A certifications at 400,000 positions per fiscal year while exempting positions filled by workers represented by qualifying agricultural labor organizations.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- United States farmworkers
- Agricultural labor organizations
- Union-represented agricultural workers
Identified Costs
- Department of Labor
- H-2A employers
- Agricultural employers
- H-2A program administrators
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in House
Ms. Jayapal (for herself, Ms. Pelosi, Mr. García of Illinois, …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
H-2A employers, Union-represented agricultural workers, United States farmworkers
Positive-direction: Union-represented agricultural workers, United States farmworkers
Negative-direction: H-2A employers
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "program"
- → H-2A temporary agricultural worker program
- "secretary"
- → Secretary of Labor
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology