Lighthouse Newsletter

AmericanHort – Lighthouse Newsletter

News and Updates from Washington D.C. for the Horticulture Industry

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CALL TO ACTION: Senate Agricultural Workforce Reform

By Sara Neagu-Reed

Congressional Members are back home for the month of October. AmericanHort leaders and members continue stepping up to convince the Senate to act on agricultural workforce reform before this Congressional session ends. Sens. Mike Crapo (R- ID) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) have made significant progress negotiating a Senate version of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021. The AmericanHort advocacy team encourages you to take a moment and send an email message to your two U.S. Senators urging their support for action on this legislative priority, which will bring greater workforce stability, H-2A certainty, and access. You can easily send a pre-drafted email to your two Senators, elevating the importance of reform and urging their support for the ongoing efforts.

Email your elected officials using the form here:

http://takeaction.americanhort.org/ landing-pages/senateagreform

Also, various groups collaborating on agricultural workforce reform will be supporting Congressional advocacy in Washington during the week of November 14. If you are interested in more details as they develop, please contact Sara Neagu-Reed at saranr@amiercanhort.org. •

Sara Neagu-Reed is Director of Advocacy and Government Relations at AmericanHort.

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What to Watch in Congress’ Lame Duck Session

By Evan Lee

With the fall campaign season underway, Congress stands in recess through the midterm election. A stopgap funding bill enacted on September 30 keeps the federal government open through December 16 as we roll into the new fiscal year. The measure’s other highlights include $12 billion for Ukraine assistance, emergency assistance for Jackson, Mississippi’s water crisis, and wildfire relief for New Mexico.

Despite the productive, albeit brief, September session, lawmakers returning home this week are leaving behind a lengthy legislative to-do list, setting up an extremely busy lame duck session. Atop the list, the House and Senate must a complete budget deal for the Fiscal Year 2023, setting overall spending levels and reconciling differences in their respective spending bills introduced earlier this year.

In spring, AmericanHort advocated to increase funding for the Floriculture and Nursery Research Initiative, our sector’s dedicated research program. The House proposed a 20 percent increase while the Senate proposed a 28 percent increase. Reconciling the difference is a key focus of advocacy efforts over the next year.

Meanwhile, the House and Senate also disagree on funding levels for the IR-4 project, another industry priority line item that funds data collection to support the registration of crop protection tools for our growers. The House supported a modest 4 percent increase to account for inflationary pressures research costs, while the Senate continued funding at the prior year level.

Led by H-2B Workforce Coalition, which AmericanHort cochairs, further compromise favorable to our industry is sought on H-2B cap relief. While grassroots efforts continue in support of permanent cap relief, the House and Senate proposals include language enabling the release of supplemental visas, though the House bill includes streamlining language to make additional visas available earlier in the season.

The budget agreement is likely to become the last train leaving the station before the new Congress is sworn in, meaning lawmakers will try to hook onto it several other legislative priorities. The universe of possibilities is ever-expanding, but AmericanHort will monitor developments and engage closely on two fronts. First is additional agricultural disaster relief for 2022, which would include nursery and floriculture growers hit hard by Hurricane Ian. Second, is a final version of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, pivotal H-2A and workforce stabilization reform for which a Senate compromise is under development by Sens. Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) (read more about this effort in Call to Action: Senate Agricultural Workforce Reform.)

The phrase “lame duck” entered the American lexicon to describe politicians, whom after electoral defeat or retirement, lose influence or become apathetic in the waning days of their tenures. With the stage set for a consequential close to the 117th Congress, the term perhaps doesn’t quite fit in 2022. •

Evan Lee is Director of Policy and Government Relations at AmericanHort.

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USDA Farm Workforce Pilot Program

By Sara Neagu-Reed

Earlier this summer, USDA announced the development of a pilot program to help producers facing labor scarcity and reduce irregular migration from certain Central American countries. Tapping into $65 million from the American Rescue Plan, the department plans to incentivize employers to employ H-2A workers from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Key details remain to be decided, including what incentives might motivate employers, what additional labor protections might be included, and the nature of the role of the United Farm Workers (UFW), which will provide technical assistance through a cooperative agreement with the department.

Last week, USDA announced it would begin gathering input to help shape this pilot program. The Farm Service agency (FSA) held three virtual listening sessions for the new farm labor stabilization and protection pilot grant program. The listening session aimed at agricultural employer organizations sought input on:

• Challenges that employers face in securing a stable workforce.

• The set of incentives that employers seek from USDA in order to improve their ability to hire workers from northern Central American countries under the seasonal H-2A visa program.

• The labor standards that will make meaningful progress towards ensuring a safer and fairer working environment for both domestic and H-2A farmworkers.

AmericanHort staff provided comments during the listening session focused on access for jobs in the green industry blocked from H-2A due to their “non-seasonal” nature. FSA will also consider comments received 30 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register. Find more details at fsa.usda.gov/farmworkers. •

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Hurricane Ian and Sunshine State Horticulture

By Craig Regelbrugge

Recovery efforts continue in the wake of high-end category 4 Hurricane Ian’s Florida landfall and rampage, as do efforts to tally the loss of life and economic damage. Our partners at the Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association report extensive damage in the hardest-hit Lee, Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto Counties, with scattered and still significant damage elsewhere. Economist Elliot Eisenberg estimates that uninsured losses from Hurricane Ian probably total $40-$50 billion including infrastructure damage and cleanup costs. Insured losses are estimated at another $65 billion. Both Florida and U.S. secondhalf 2022 gross domestic product will take a hit, but recovery will spur growth in 2023. And, further disaster assistance will be on the table in the post-election session of Congress. •

Craig Regelbrugge is Executive Vice President Advocacy, Research, & Industry Relations at AmericanHort.

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EPA Withdraws Glyphosate Interim Decision

By Laurie Flanagan

On September 23, the U.S. EPA announced its withdrawal of all remaining portions of its Interim Decision (ID) review decision for glyphosate.

https://www.epa.gov/pesticides/ epa-withdraws-glyphosate-interim-decision

Registered glyphosate products are unaffected by this withdrawal and pesticide products containing glyphosate may continue to be used according to the product label and remain on the market. EPA stands firmly behind the findings of its 2020 Interim Decision (https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/glyphosate) but this action underlines the complexity of the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Glyphosate, a widely used broad-spectrum herbicide, is in the process of registration review, a routine reevaluation of pesticide registrations to ensure that current pesticide products are still in line with their intended use without unreasonable adverse effects on human health or the environment.

Under FIFRA, these reviews are done every 15 years. On February 3, 2020, EPA published its Interim Decision (ID) that detailed that EPA had not identified any human health risks of concern from exposure to glyphosate but did identify potential ecological risks. This ID was challenged by a National Resource Defense Council-led group in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit two months after it was published. On June 17, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated the human health portion of the glyphosate ID and held that EPA’s registration review decision under FIFRA was an “action” that triggered ESA obligations. The court also granted EPA’s request for voluntary remand, without vacatur, of the ecological portion of the ID but imposed an October 1, 2022, deadline for EPA to issue a new ecological portion.

EPA had communicated to the court that ESA review is performed in cooperation with the US Fish and Wildlife and National Marine Fisheries Services and although the process was initiated in November 2021, it would take several years to complete, and thus the Agency was unable to finalize a new ecological position by the October 1, 2022, court-ordered deadline. EPA made its decision to withdraw the glyphosate ID and complete the full glyphosate registration review by 2026, meeting its obligations under both FIFRA and ESA. A copy of the Agency’s withdrawal and its reasoning can be found here: https://www. regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0361-14447 •

Laurie Flanagan is Executive Vice President at D.C. Legislative and Regulatory Services.